Tom Beaulieu

It will likely not be a capital budgeting process. It would most likely be an O and M item. This would be, again, most likely a contribution if it was to be capital. I think this may be something that could occur, I think dredging would occur every five years or so. I think that’s what has been happening in the past. So for something like that, it would be most likely a one-time contribution and then maybe setting up some sort of schedule, but I’m not sure that the Department of Transportation is going to get into the purchasing of the dredging equipment. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to provide additional information to supplement my responses given during oral question period on September 29, 2015, regarding dredging the port of Hay River. The Department of Transportation has received a response from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to our most recent letter requesting dredging and federal marine facility maintenance.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is keenly aware of the critical need to restore the east channel of the Hay River and its approaches from Great Slave Lake back to safe marine navigating conditions.

The Department of Transportation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are going to be meeting and getting the group together. It’s going to be ourselves and industry, obviously. So I can’t determine their schedule, but we’re going to try to have our people ready at any time and definitely before the next barging season. Thank you.

Thank you. There will be two phases in the planning study. The first phase will be completed in February of 2016. Phase two, which will be complete with schematic design and class C estimate and then used for the peer review committee. The peer review committee will be discussing the need, the capital need for the Fort Simpson Health Centre in comparison to all of the other capital needs put forward by all of the departments. We’re expecting the peer review process as part of phase two, the planning study, will be completed by fall of 2016. Thank you.

It’s more an issue of the volume of work. Right now, all of the airport divisions, the airports in the regions all report to a regional superintendent. One of the solutions that the Member at one time proposed was that perhaps the first step would be to move the airport operations in the Sahtu to report to headquarters here in Yellowknife, and we had looked at that. Right now that would be a bit of hybrid from what we’re doing. What we wanted to do was continue to move forward on the Member’s demand to have basically a highways section, a marine section and an airport section all in a regional...

Another important part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway has been the Canyon Creek Road. Canyon Creek Road will give people the ability, who are eventually going to be building the highway, to access material for the highway. Canyon Creek proposal has been reviewed, approved at our level, GNWT. We’ve now included it in the overall Building Canada Plan bundle number two. We are presenting three different bundles to the government. We had bundle one approved last June. What we are hoping to do is have bundle two approved anywhere between January and March of 2016, and we’re hoping as soon as that...

I can’t make a commitment from the Legislative Assembly today to contribute to a proposal, but we would be pleased to look at your proposal. If there’s a proposal coming forward, the government would be pleased to look at the proposal. Thank you.

As a result of the act, the department will be able to develop a lot of the policies that would be directed to corporations, to be directed to the government, directed to the public on ways that they can reduce energy costs right across the territory and all aspects of our business. I’m hopeful that this act will allow government to work with the public and with industry in all areas to allow everybody to become more efficient energy-wise. Thank you.

That is the plan, that we do present a discussion paper that’s thorough to the next Assembly and that a lot of the legwork will be completed in the discussion paper. Hopefully, once that is done, soon after the next government they will start to move forward with the act. Thank you.

The very initial discussions that we had was dredging is commonly done on a five/six year basis. A lot of dredging has to occur for the whole Mackenzie River right away. So not only the Hay River Harbour but there are some spots along the Mackenzie River. So, likely it would be multi-year dredging. But it’s really early to get into it because we need to figure out who’s going to pay for the equipment if the federal government will participate. If we participate, do we come forward with money here in the House? I suppose that’s part of the process. So those questions have to be answered and a...