Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, we have done a number of things over the last while to try to enhance the Winter Road Program, including signs for safety reasons. We have tried to step up the highway patrols on the winter road system. We have also tried to incorporate new technology into building the roads and increase our maintenance cycles. We have requested some of the industry people that were utilizing certain portions of the road to invest. We have managed to build quite a few bridges over the last while that have extended the season. The winter road system is still usually dictated by weather. We have...

Mr. Chairman, this is really not an issue for us to intervene on. It has been raised by some of the contractors that the payment to them was not as quick as they would like. There has also been concern that our approval process is very rigid in terms of having all the required approvals. This is a project that falls under the Canadian Bridge Code and everything has to be approved for quality assurance and stamped and signed off. It can be fairly lengthy in some cases. I am not aware of any subcontractors that have not been paid. It is an issue we have raised with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation...

Mr. Chairman, the deputy informs me there was a recent assessment of the Aklavik Airport on the runway and the indicators are that it’s sufficient to meet the needs. Thank you.

The process for a water licence is open for Members or individuals or the general public to intervene. It’s issued by the Gwich’in Water Board. My understanding is it’s for 10 years, I just don’t have an expiry date.

Mr. Chairman, I commit before and I’ll commit again, we’ll look at the different options. Right now we do not have a solution other than providing or using gravel as a stabilizer for that landing. There may be other things. We are not aware of it. We’ll do as the Member’s requested and look at the different options.

The method that Fort Providence is using for a ramp is not...

Mr. Chairman, we certainly have been trying to deal with the large amount of requirements for bridges in the Northwest Territories. We have actively worked on 37 new bridges that we’ll have in place over the last while. We have now a total of 77 bridges in the highway system. There are still five major bridges that need to be addressed at some point. It is a concern. The Liard River Bridge, the Ndulee crossing, the Bear River Bridge, the Peel River Bridge, as the Member has indicated, and also the Mackenzie crossing at Tsiigehtchic are all requirements that probably should have been addressed...

Mr. Chairman, both the $600,000 and $200,000 are in the budgets for design checks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today I have the deputy minister of Transportation, Mr. Russell Neudorf, and also the assistant deputy minister, Mr. Daniel Auger.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A number of questions there. Mr. Chairman, I think the Member would agree that the rationale for using gravel is as a result of the nature of the landing. The type of soil that’s in that area requires us to use gravel to stabilize the landings. There was a study done in 2001 that looked at the situation and it deemed that the process was adequate. The approaches continue to be utilized because, first of all, it’s cost effective.

Mr. Chairman, we also operate under a water licence that has strict criteria to follow and we are meeting the guidelines.

Mr. Chairman, I also...

Mr. Chairman, the Member raises a very good point. That has been a huge challenge for our department. Given the lifecycle of our many roads coming to mid-life, requirement of upgrades and given our deficit situation over the last while, we have seen some deficiencies occur as some of what should have been another layer of gravel placed on top so the quartz will come through. It causes some concern, along with climate change, of course.

Mr. Chairman, our staff is using new designs and new systems to build the roads. We are incorporating more geotech, more ways to prevent the permafrost from...

We had responded to an earlier question by stating that the new licence plate would be ready for review or for committee to look at probably in a month or two. Thank you.