Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have been working with the community. We approved a substantial chunk of the Access Program money for the purchase of a bridge that will span the Willow River, and now we are reviewing a proposal for an ATV trail and also a proposal for the insulation of the bridge. Thank you.

[English translation not provided.] Mr. Speaker, building a safe and effective transportation system is vital to support the development of a sustainable economy and meeting the social needs of NWT residents. Goals identified by Members of the 17th Assembly express the significance of improving transportation services across the NWT to reduce the cost of living in communities and to create employment and business opportunities for residents.

To this end, the Department of Transportation is updating its NWT Transportation Strategy to guide further development of our integrated air, road, rail...

The revolving fund that I spoke of is a fund that is put out by the government. It is, again, intended to provide fuel to communities that otherwise would not be able to have any fuel delivered into the community. Within that revolving fund there is no ability for this department or the petroleum division to subsidize any of the communities that they deliver the fuel to. Thank you.

The reason is because we have the revolving fund and that if we were to subsidize one community, we would have to actually take if from another community. For the most part, as I indicated, each of the communities we try to come in at 100 percent of the actual costs for us to deliver that product to a home. In some communities, the smaller communities we have tried to go below 100 percent cost, and in fact, where the subsidy is not picked up by anyone else, like some of the larger communities, at 100 percent will allow us to bring some of the higher cost fuel prices down, but not lower than 95...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, under the Department of Public Works and Services we have a petroleum products division. That division is created with a Petroleum Products Revolving Fund. We have a certain amount of money that we use to buy fuel in communities where it is not feasible for anybody else to go into the community to sell fuel. We take communities in this Member’s riding, like Jean Marie, Nahanni, Wrigley and Trout, and in those communities no other supplier wishes to go in there and supply fuel because it’s not feasible. We are bringing it in at cost and the cost to distribute...

If we were to change the Petroleum Products Revolving Fund, we would have to come back to the House. This is a fund that’s approved in the House to be able to subsidize or actually deliver fuel to communities where no other individual or private enterprise wishes to venture into. We, as a government, look forward to any community or any organization or industry that wishes to take over delivering fuel. We do it because communities need to have fuel; communities need to have gas. We do it, and we do it at cost.

Like I said, there’s a little bit of flexibility there, but beyond that there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m seeking unanimous consent to return to number five on orders of the day.

---Unanimous consent granted

This particular case was a maneuver that had been performed various times by the contractors under the supervision of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The reason that we had received the lion’s share of the fine was because we’re the owner of the contract and that we also owned the ferry. They made a decision in the courts that only a small portion should be administered to the contractor because of the injury that was received on-site. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Members can appreciate, this is a very complex issue with many employees scattered across the North doing many things, and many other people working for the GNWT that are not necessarily employees, but contractors, even down to people who are doing the custodial work in our buildings and so on. So, as I indicated, a complex issue.

The Department of Human Resources is working with all of the departments to strike occupational health and safety committees in the regions and in headquarters and are having regular meetings, trying to put as many safety programs on as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I’d like to recognize a couple of constituents of mine in the gallery, Paul Bushey and his son Davis.