Tom Beaulieu

We are optimistic that approvals will be in very early 2016. As soon as we have approvals, we intend to produce the material, so we will start the crushing. Probably somewhere in the very first quarter of 2016 we should have the crushing done and then the roadwork will actually begin next summer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. New airports, new construction comes with some issues that we usually sort out in the first couple of years. There is nothing that we’re anticipating that can’t be handled with the equipment that is there, with the grader. We know that we didn’t have the money immediately to build the airport terminal building, but we now have the money and we’ll be proceeding with the construction of the ATB.

I apologize, Mr. Chairman; I didn’t hear the question.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The parking garage upgrade is scheduled to begin this year. There was some work done on the upgrade. Some of the money was spent on the parking upgrade.

The Willow River Bridge is part of the Access Roads Program. The Access Roads Program, as committee knows, is a program where there is just a little over $1 million and sometimes a little under $1 million spent in the program each year. So what we try to do with some of the projects is we try to support some of the programs in a larger way. This is one of the programs that we tried to support and we knew going in that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to ask the deputy to respond to that.

The entire project is $11 million. With that, our intention is to survey – and the survey is commencing now – and do some crushing and producing material and strengthen the roadway. Then we intend to replace culverts where a lot of the culverts have sunk and collapsed. Also, at the end, once the road is built to a strength that we’re happy with, then we’re going to be chipsealing the road. We are going to wait for the Building Canada Plan before the actual construction begins.

Just with our relationship with Infrastructure Canada, we found that it’s better to wait and then they’re more apt to...

We believe it is a drainage problem. At one point we were looking at the possibility that it may be a permafrost issue, but we have determined that it is a drainage problem and we’re convinced that this fix here is going to resolve the issue for at least 20 years, as I indicated.

The regular maintenance program, with the capital that we are discussing today, we will be reconstructing sections that we are hoping won’t deteriorate any further. With the areas where we are not reconstructing, we continue to maintain it and if there are some dips that need to be filled, if there are holes that need to be filled, then we will be patching the holes and filling the dips with some material that will keep the road as smooth as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do not have that information with us here today but we can get that information and provide it to the committee.

I can tell you that it was around $200,000, but I don’t have the details of what it was spent on. We’re not scheduled to use the contingency fund in this construction season that we’re now getting some appropriation for.