Tom Beaulieu

The petroleum products division will become the fuel services division, so all of the functions at this point where we’re buying fuel from the rack and then delivering and then having distribution at the community level, those costs and then the functions and the positions that are directly associated with those functions of delivering fuel to the communities will be the cost of fuel, and that’s how we will continue to determine the cost of fuel in these communities that we provide fuel services to.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In June 2013, a recommendation came from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning from the Regular Members. It recommended that Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources be created into a separate department. Cabinet looked at that in May of 2014 and looked at that recommendation and made the decision that we would consolidate one of those functions, well, two of them actually, the energy and the petroleum into Public Works, so that was the reason for us making that move over to creating that division under Public Works and Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2013 Public Service Annual Report.” Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have no problem whatsoever to advise the people in Fort Simpson and apologize for having some failure on the equipment and explain why there was some confusion of the ferry being anticipated to close then extended again. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. What we use is the average of the last 10 years as a time when we indicate when the ferry will close. The average in the last 10 years on the one ferry, the Liard ferry, was November 3rd, so we advised the public that it would be closed anywhere within 72 hours because we thought that was taking us to November 3rd. However, we try to keep the ferry open as long as possible, as long as it is safe to continue to run, so there may be extensions added to that if the ferry is still running safely across the river. Thank you.

Yes, we would consider it, depending on what information they wanted to release. I believe that we could probably talk about the various priorities, but I think some of the information would remain confidential. If the committee has ideas and it was to write to us asking us what they wanted released for what purpose to the public, then we would consider that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have that information. We do advise committee on the amount of appointments that we’ve done over each government. I believe that the last time the committee asked, we had provided them with information on the amount of direct appointments that we had done at the Cabinet level.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing negotiations with Infrastructure Canada on the Building Canada Fund. The thought was that this actual construction season that just went by would be at the time we would be able to roll out that money, but that didn’t happen. So, we are continuing to work with them.

We’re very positive, as a department and as a government, that we will be able to sign the necessary documents and roll out that money for this upcoming construction season. Thank you.

One of the things we will do for this vital time of the year, I will ensure that the equipment is checked earlier, before it’s needed and to ensure that it’s working. That is one of the things that we will incorporate with that ferry or any ferry that needs a depth sounder to continue to cross the river. Thank you.

That vital piece of equipment that the Member refers to was not working properly at the time. We had that piece of equipment repaired and it started to work. We recognized that the depth was still sufficient to run the ferry, so we extended the ferry operations.

As I indicated, we feel that we try to run the ferry as long as possible so that is why there was a little confusion to try to keep the ferry open, although we indicated earlier that we thought it would be closing sooner. Thank you.