Michael Miltenberger

I was going to suggest being put out to pasture. They are over 60 years old. Being over 60, I can tell you, keeping up with the guys in their twenties is very, very tough, if not downright impossible, to be completely frank, in the confines of this Assembly, just amongst ourselves.

Are there other uses for the 215s? There could be. The Member and I have talked a bit about this and I have heard this from the owner of Buffalo Airways, his vision of a fleet of pollution-fighting aircraft that could respond to spills and be there if they are needed. In fact, there were discussions with ENR at one...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like every other arm of government, we are very aware of the fiscal constraints that we operate under. When we looked and we did years of work mainly with Meyers Norris Penny, looking at all the planes and it came down to also having the hat of the Finance Minister on, and as I was looking at this, what can we come forward in good conscience to tell the Legislature to make the case of what is the best way forward. The discussion was very quickly that the 802s could meet our needs at a fraction of the cost of getting four 215s or four 415s, three times, four times more...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The option of selling the planes – as you know, they are not worth an enormous amount of money – is definitely one that we’re seriously looking at. On the assumption that if the budget is approved for these planes, the orders would be put in and that we anticipate that we’d have all 802s ready to go for the fire season of 2017. Until that point, we would be continuing to maintain and keep the 215s. We would start on the fire season and then, once we have the new fleet on line, we would look at what kind of disposal is in our best interest as a government.

The issue of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me is the deputy minister, Ernie Campbell; and head of forest fire operations, Bill Mawdsley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just quickly to the process. We have a rigorous capital planning process that has been refined over the decades to where it is today, and we all know that it is fully subscribed to and that we have probably a $3 billion infrastructure deficit that we are working hard to try to address.

We are well through this upcoming year’s capital planning process. Every penny has been accounted for. When I look at this motion, be it 60 beds, 30 beds and a full-scale renovation, I would suggest that we are looking at well over $50 million, a motion that is put on our table as we are...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the start of the season, the practice has been the 215s, and we would anticipate following with 802s, that you’d have right now two to start the season. Two of the 215s are stationed in Yellowknife, and the other two are on the ground in the South Slave at the base in Fort Smith. Then from there they’re deployed as required. Conair is not the manufacturer; they’re the Canadian supplier for Air Tractor. The planes are manufactured in Texas I believe. We have a letter of commitment and we’ve got that point clarified, at the request of committee, that if we proceed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t think any jurisdiction leaves firefighting up to the private sector when it comes to deploying the air resources, land resources, the heavy equipment. What we have right now is a contract with a private contractor to manage and operate the 215s, for example, and we have a contract for some land-based. That equipment becomes available to the Government of the Northwest Territories for us to deploy where it’s needed. So they are there and they are sent to where they’re needed, same as our fire crews that we have with the communities and our own fire crews are...

Just a comment first about the 215s. They have had a long and honourable history in protecting the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. If they were a horse, we would be talking about…

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll go through the list and I apologize if I missed anything. To the issue of are the 802s up to the task, we’ve battle tested these planes now, not only us but other jurisdictions, but we’ve seen them firsthand in the Northwest Territories. It’s our third season, and they’ve handled everything that Mother Nature and forest fires could throw at them. They are nimble. They can operate in turn and maneuver very, very well. They are powerful. They have the distinct added advantage that they can go to shallow lakes that the 215s currently can’t. Whereas a 215 may have to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Member indicates, I think this is our third year to have seen the 802s operate under full forest fire operating conditions, under extreme forest fire operating conditions, especially last summer. They have performed admirably. The 802s would equal the impact of the four 215s that we do currently have. The four 215s, which I point out are probably 60 years old, roughly, burn fuel that is going to become obsolete in the not-too-distant future. There’s three years left on the current contract. We have at least two instances and one near incident where we actually...