Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The provision for dust suppressants and other measures on the airports was approved in our capital budget in the fall and I can certainly provide that information again to the Members. I guess it’s important to clarify that chipseal can’t work in the communities. We don’t feel it’s a safe way to apply a coating to the runways. It either has to be pavement or EK-35. We’ve used it in some communities and we have a schedule to apply it to other communities to the cost of about $400,000 a year. We have a number of communities scheduled for this year. We have already done...

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.

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.

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, we would like to have it out for this year. That is what we are aiming for. I can’t say for certain that we will. We will be bringing something forward to committee for consideration when we start looking at the other initiatives and issues including budget allocations, we will have the first chance to present it to committee for their input and feedback.

Mr. Chairman, we’d be glad to give a definition on each one and give the location and the projects that we’re doing in the different regions. I would also be glad to sit down with the Member if he had further interest in some of these areas.

Mr. Chairman, all our clients are required to pay a portion of their power bill, so most clients are very diligent about how much power they use.

I will certainly have to agree with the Member’s comments. It is an issue. It is not our issue. We are not alone in this. All jurisdictions across Canada are being treated the same. We have partnered up with all the other jurisdictions including other organizations in the South and in the other two territories to combine our forces and strengthen our arguments to the federal government. We have had, so far this year, one discussion on this issue. We intend to move forward with the new federal government to raise it and see if we can find a solution to this.

Mr. Chairman, the Member raises a lot of issues. We totally agree there is a need to look at unique situations. When we do look at the core need and we adjust for a number of varying factors including transportation, the condition of units, overcrowding, costs, we also look at the condition ratings, the waiting lists and the LHOs and we try to make our decisions accordingly. This year, probably in a couple of weeks, we will be coming back to the committee to show what the plans for this year are, with the new dollars also included. There are a number of other requests that we need to report on...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. The Member is referring to a program that we’ve decided to eliminate as part of our budget reduction program and also as part of our desire to incorporate the many programs that we had historically into a smaller grouping. This will be built into each region’s budget and will be able to be covered off through the different programs that we have. Thank you.