Rocky Simpson

We saw how fast the Department of Health responded to COVID, and we saw what the government could actually do, how fast they can react. I am hoping that the Department of Infrastructure is going to be the same way, and not kind of drag this out with, "Wait until we get panels in place," and coming up with more excuses.

One of the problems that I see is that the staff, no doubt, are working hard, whether they are at home or not, but one of the problems that I see is that we don't have a lot of people in the offices. We have office buildings in the communities that have separate offices, and we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the Minister made a comment or somebody made a comment on lessons learned on projects. We have seen the Deh Cho Bridge, the highway out at Behchoko is going ahead, and we hear problems there, and there are probably other ones out there, as well. Over the years, we seem to always go back to lessons learned, but I don't know if we ever learn any lessons, to tell you the truth, or, if we do, we forget them pretty quickly. I just want to know what your department is doing; what are you doing with the information from lessons learned? Give me some examples or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are all well aware that, because of the pandemic, our economy is being hit hard. We have to find a way, I guess, to get it back on track. One of the things that I see is that we have three departments, probably: Housing; Infrastructure; and Education, Culture and Employment. Those, I see as the three departments that are going to provide contracts and provide the employment and training for our residents and for our businesses. We also talk about, you know, having panels, like blue-chip panels and that, of businesspeople, and I guess what I see with that, if we're...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Basically, that is what I have been hearing, too, is that contractors want to work because, if they are taking loans and they are taking deferrals and that, really they are just putting themselves further in debt, and that does not help their survival. The other area is in engineering opportunities. We have a number of larger engineering firms here in the territories, but we also have in Hay River a smaller one. It was born here in the North. It was born in Hay River, and it is owned by local people, but again, there they have problems trying to compete because they...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the highway systems, the design, I expect that they've looked at all the highways in the Territories and have done some assessment and prioritized them as to which ones have to be looked at first? My concern is that Highway 1, from the border to Enterprise and also Highway 2, from Enterprise into Hay River, there hasn't really been any realignment or any widening in the last number of years. I know that because once in a while I ride my bicycle to the border. There is not much there for a shoulder. We have a number of trucks [microphone turned off] and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to contracts, have you looked at the ones or identified the ones that we know can be done by northern contractors versus southern contractors? Have those projects been given priority? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Another question that comes up with constituents, of course, is the price of fuel. They want to know: why is it so high? What are the components that make up the cost of fuel, the taxes, the freight, and those items? Can you provide to have the information to me? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Has the department done any work, taking in the fact that we have a pandemic on hand? Have you looked at those numbers and thought about adjustments already? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess in the news in the past, we saw negative oil prices. Has that affected the price that the GNWT has been paying for fuel or gas? Because that's a question that constituents ask: why is the price at negative whatever, and we're still paying $1.00, $1.20 a litre, and in Edmonton, they're paying 50 cents a litre? I'm just wondering, and I understand that we're buying bulk and we have to kind of have it ahead of time to get it on the barges and move it north. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister just commit to taking a look at the SMCC facility? You know, there may not be a lot of employees there who are in that predicament, but there may be a few, and it would be nice to have it addressed sooner than later.