Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For a more detailed response I’d like to ask the deputy to respond to the Member.

This government will not be laying any of the public service off, but we do provide the best information possible, as I indicated, for the next government to look at and for the next government to have all of the information necessary through the complete costs of human resources, the current vacancy rates of human resources. If the next government was to look at the vacancy rates then that would be presented, if they wanted to look at the costs of the public service, how many casuals we’re carrying in the public service, they would look at our workforce planning strategies. We have the...

Mr. Chairman, we will continue to monitor the airport with what we have, and it may come to a point if we are unable to maintain the airport with what we have, we may have to bring something else in. At this point I can commit to monitoring it and making sure that we’re in touch with the community, and if the community keeps advising us that things are running okay, then we’ll leave it as is. If it becomes an issue, then we’ll have to deal with it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department is working with DND doing some studies for that possibility that we would handle the larger jets in Inuvik.

Again, the deputies have been in touch and have had many discussions about that highway. I will commit to calling the Yukon Transportation or Highways Minister and have that discussion.

The construction of the highway was finished in 2006 and we don’t have the information if any warranty money was used the following year with us here. It may have been, but we can provide that information to committee if the Members wish.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we have an obligation to ensure that the 18th Assembly is provided with the best transition information as possible as to our fiscal situation so that they can make decisions based on the challenges and opportunities that are before them.

The tenders on that have closed. We’re going to award soon. It’s going in on the winter road and we’re going to do the construction as soon as possible after that.

The brushing is something that we are doing under the separate contract from the Building Canada Plan. The Building Canada Plan will be the reconstruction of the Dempster Highway, Highway No. 8, and the brushing is the separate contract. We are trying to do it every couple of years if possible. There’s a lot of highway to be brushed and I’m noticing that most of the highways now are getting some brushing done. For safety reasons we want to continue to do, right away, brushing as much as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have equipment strategically placed at James Creek, McPherson and we’re trying to, when there’s bad weather and the highway’s blowing, get it open as quickly as possible. We’re not thinking that adding more pieces of equipment will keep the road open. Often the road is closed on the Yukon side. So we don’t think it’s really a lack of equipment, rather just conditions of weather on the Dempster.