Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can give the Member a number for all the land that is current and proposed, including Thaidene Nene and areas that have been worked on since 1999, keeping in mind that the proposed areas in all probability will end up shrinking as the final footprint is determined, but that percentage is 14 percent of the land mass. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct; there were sections of the line that floated to the surface once the ground melted. The line has been checked from one end to the other and they have identified all the areas and they have worked to ensure that the cable is properly buried. Given that is was a unique sort of process, it was something that wasn’t anticipated but has been rectified at the cost to the contractor. There is a plan that has been put into place over the summer to do that. Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The project started out in its initial conceptual stages with a range somewhere between 65 and I think it was 85 million dollars. As the estimating got finer and the numbers hardened up, it moved to the higher end of the scale. When we did certain things like double the size of the cable from 24 pair to 48 pair to give it a lot of capacity, those types of things added cost as well. But I’ll ask the deputy, Mr. Chair, with your agreement, if he wants to add more detail. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We anticipate that this would be a request for proposals, that there are, we believe, eminently qualified and capable northern businesses that would be very, very interested in a contract like this, and we would anticipate, and we would make sure it’s in the contract that, of course, northern pilots be checked out on these planes that are there. There are existing airline companies up here clearly that have the size and ability, could look and manage the hangar space or provide for that. So we anticipate that there is every reason to believe that there would be a...

I move we report progress.

---Carried

I do, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

We will pull something together that will capture that as per the Member’s request.

I just want to point out that in my mind the final mile piece has always been where the business opportunity is and we would be there to provide support as opposed to going to communities and getting potentially into the telecommunication business. So between the providers that are there, the ISPs, the communities with us playing a support role, we want to make sure that final mile gets implemented. But we will, on that basis, pull together the information for the Member in the life of this Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve put this document forward for consultation and we’ve extended the consultation period to, I believe, October 19th, at which time we will put it in a box, basically, and we’ll include it with the transition document for consideration in the 18th Assembly, which will include all the feedback we get.

This document is basically post-devolution. The Northwest Territories has taken over the Protected Areas Strategy and has rebranded it and packaged it and is putting is out as a Northern Conservation Action Plan. There is a process that we’re going to continue on with from the...