Tom Beaulieu

The shelf life of fuel is about three years, and we also need the capacity in order to store fuel. The Member is correct; there are possibilities of renting storage for fuel, but I think the cost of fuel would have to be considerably lower than what we’re anticipating in the future in order to make it feasible. So right now we’re looking at filling up our own capacities, to buy as much fuel as possible at this point with the capacity that we currently have without renting from outside of government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to have the deputy minister or the director respond on the variance and the net fiscal benefit information and the Vote 1 revenues.

For the Detah road, we have all of the money in place now to reconstruct the Detah road completely.

We have some money in capital that we’ve spent and then the rest of it we’ve put in year one of the Building Canada Plan. This year when we did our first bundle, that’s work that’s going to be done under Building Canada Plan. The entire amount to finish that road, 100 percent, is in year one, so we’re pleased with that.

The Niven...

These prices are for this year. We think that the price may stabilize or go back up a bit, but we haven’t hedged the cost of fuel moving forward. We have the Stabilization Fund that’s designed to stabilize the fuel costs in the communities. When the fuel prices go down, we increase the Stabilization Fund. When the fuel prices go back up, we decrease the Stabilization Fund, keeping it stable but not two years into the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We agree that’s the right program to do exactly what the Member is requesting. We encourage the community to put in an access road proposal to pay to keep that road open. We can have the local guys talk to the leadership over there, wherever we are going to receive a proposal from, to see if they could obtain that proposal from them for using the access road money to keep that road open.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize some individuals from Tu Nedhe today. First, I would like to recognize our interpreters that have been interpreting all week here. There is a new interpreter in there, Dennis Drygeese from Lutselk’e and, of course, also the veteran interpreter, Tommy Unka from Fort Resolution. Also, we have two Pages from Lutselk’e, Dacho Poole and Johnny Yassie, and their chaperone, Jordan Michel. I am not sure if he is here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The community of Tuktoyaktuk has been looking at this deep water port for some time. Of course, as the highway to Tuktoyaktuk is getting close to completion, there’s more interest in a deep water port. It’s another viable transportation method, so that’s certainly something we would participate in.

In as far as what we can do from using our highway and so on, deep water ports are a federal responsibility and that’s where it will probably remain for now. However, whatever we can do as a department to assist, we’ll be there.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The French language services, the signs were put up for safety reasons. Anywhere where we felt there were potential safety-related issues we put up signs in both languages to ensure that it was understood by all the travelling public. The majority of that money, we provide French services, as well, in addition to that, and that was salary and a little bit of travel. So we thought it was well spent.

Highway emergency learning protocol is something that we work with the departments of Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services. We’re going to continue...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are maintaining Highway No. 7. We’re hoping that all of the areas that were identified as very bad spots are going to be attended to sooner rather than later, although our concentration is going to be in around fixing that highway and finishing the chipseal to Liard from BC, from Liard over to Nahanni, and there will be lots of BCP money going in there.

Other areas where there are soft spots – and it was a major concern when we were in Fort Liard, where it’s very bad and we’re aware of it – the guys and the department from Simpson seem very aware of it so we will be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I do.

Of course, we’re continuing the maintenance work on the highway and making Highway No. 7 as passable as possible. We’re always striving to improve that road. So, with this money we’re also going to improve any areas where there have been problems. The people know exactly which areas are problems, and for the first package of work that we intend to do we intend to spend an additional $12 million over the next four years. Thank you.