Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, not all the applications are in yet. We have Aklavik identified as a community that we expect to apply, but we have not received an application from them.

Yes, it is one of the options we’re looking at. We also looked at the possibility of looking at a better drainage system or redirecting it and changing some of the culverts so the water would run through. It would be fairly expensive. It looks like, at this point, the easiest solution would be to be able to relocate the building. There are some land issues we need to sort out, but it’s a real possibility that this is the avenue we will go.

Mr. Chairman, this is a negotiated contract situation where both parties agreed on the terms. We certainly don’t want the company to have undue duress as a result of not being able to move forward and provide the maintenance as the Member is raising. I was not aware that there was an issue there. The deputy minister, Mr. Neudorf, can certainly undertake to have a sit-down discussion regarding the issues about, I believe, not being able to get out when they feel it’s required. That’s an issue we can take a look at. Thank you.

We’ve had several discussions with the Member and the communities involved regarding the requested extension to the runway lengths to 4,500 feet. The situation is, as the 2010 ruling comes forward and gets closer, people in the southern jurisdictions are putting some of their aircraft out for sale as they would rather buy more efficient aircraft to operate. The Beech 1900 and other ones are becoming fairly cheap and that’s becoming very attractive through some of the communities and corporations in the North. They are wanting to purchase these aircraft and require us to upgrade the runway...

Mr. Chairman, we will try to convince the government to invest as much as they can in the Northwest Territories. We have a lot of needs in the area of marine facilities. Certainly if we can convince the government to go further than just the communities that deal with commercial fishermen, that would really help us in a lot of different ways and address some of the issues that are being raised by the Member here today. Thank you.

I believe the question is if we have our staff go door to door to see if they’ve all applied. No, we don’t do that.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. We would work with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to address the issue to look at providing an emergency type of situation that would allow us to get into the community. If it is feasible, it would be forced to fly the fuel in, or if it is a community that is on the ice or along the river system that provide enough short-term assistance until the product was able to get there in the summer. But there is a committee, a working group that is made up from different departments that would look at each situation. It is something that is being monitored.

Mr. Chairman, we undertook an assessment study approximately a year and a half ago on all the airports to determine if the links were appropriate and the conditions. In the case of Lutselk’e, the runway is in good condition and it’s adequate to meet the needs of that community.

We’ll have that in all the detail.

This is a very important part of our being able to communicate with the clients and the people that come forward to apply for our programs. We certainly make notices given that if there is a requirement for an interpreter, we can certainly facilitate that. We try to ensure that our technical people at the community level and regional level are able to communicate and be able to provide information. We have new programs that can walk people through the different steps available through the budgeting process, through the banking, through the credit systems, all the different components that...