Tom Beaulieu

Certainly the people down by the riverbank at Four Mile have been there for many, many years, so it would be nice to be able to light up the roadway, as well, going down to Four Mile. So we’ll have the department look at that area as well. Thank you.

I personally have not been in contact with the municipality, but the information was passed on to the department and it’s possible the department has initiated some discussion with the municipality on this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I chose today to recognize the two Pages from Fort Resolution. There’s Amy Ann Mercredi – her last name is “Wednesday” in English – and also Kayleigh Hunter. She’s also been working here for us this week.

I’d also like to recognize my interpreter, Tom Unka. He has been coming into the Legislative Assembly almost every second sitting for the last eight years. Tom Unka does both the translation for anything that needs translation and also the interpreting for myself in the House, so I’d like to recognize him.

Mr. Speaker, in June 2015 the Department of Transportation tabled our multi-modal Transportation Strategy, entitled “Connecting Us.” The strategy defines the challenges and opportunities related to improving road, air, marine and rail services for residents, communities and businesses across the NWT over the next 25 years. I am pleased to report that the department is implementing the updated Transportation Strategy and making substantial progress under the three key strategic initiatives: strengthening connections, capturing opportunities, and embracing innovation.

The department is...

There’s not a whole bunch of reasons why we’re not paying. It’s documentation, it’s the agreement that we had between another government and ourselves. So I can only answer this in one way, that this money that we got from another government was not there to pay for this work. It was there to cover the deficiencies. We still had deficiencies on the bridge. We have approximately the same amount of money left in the fund that there are deficiencies on the bridge. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Member as well.

As I indicated in one of the responses, I don’t have the list of individuals that were paid out or the circumstances surrounding the payout. What I’m dealing with is the payout of a company, Rowe’s Construction, at this point. What we’re indicating is that we have the money to finish the bridge, clean up all the deficiencies. If we’re going to pay over and above that, if we’re going to pay for a deal that somebody made with another company that went bankrupt on the job, then we’d have to come back to the House for more money. It’s that simple. We can’t take money out of there and then pay...

We proposed, in the bill, suspensions because suspension and demerits go well together. In the bill, a specific offence on distracted driving will net you a suspension plus demerit points. If an individual does have a fifth distracted driving charge in a two-year period, they will be suspended indefinitely. I think they would use all their demerit points. What I can do is maybe ask Russell or Steve to add to this.

This government supports lots of local and northern businesses. This is an issue where we need to have the proper documentation and we need to have the legal grounds to pay out of what is not considered to be exactly the reason that we got money. We weren’t given the mandate to just spend the money wherever we felt, wherever we felt pressure, wherever we felt that individuals were coming and trying to present this from a political perspective. We have a referee’s report, number one, and number two, the referee’s report said two of those had technical merit, that they felt that two of those...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department is proposing to define use, so use would be holding, operating or touching a restricted electronic device.