Tom Beaulieu

We agree with the Member that dredging in the Hay River is essential to transportation of goods. We continue to urge the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. I haven’t engaged the Minister directly; however, the department has been doing some work with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the federal department, and urging them to get the dredging done as we, too, see that as essential.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do.

Probably the two biggest lessons learned were that we need to cut the ice sooner to get the ferry in before the ice hardens too much. That was a big lesson. The second lesson learned is we need to accelerate the construction of the ice road. Last year we were accelerating the construction of the ice road, but we need to add to that and accelerate the ice road even further.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to answer that question in two parts. First, with light vehicles, historically traffic for light vehicles was essentially shut down for almost a full month. That’s the historical data. Last year they were shut down for 19 days. Then vehicles up to 60,000, which is a threshold, I think, where the majority of the supplies can get across the Mackenzie River, historically in the last several years the shutdown has been anywhere from 72 to 83 days. Last year the shutdown was 33 days.

The last time the federal government did spend money on the port was in 2012-13. We recognize that there appears to be an abandonment of that responsibility at this point. In order for me to include that item under the Department of Transportation business plan, again, I would have to go through the process here, the business planning process, and come to the Members to request that money be put into our business plan in order to dredge the port in Hay River.

I’m not aware of any studies done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can’t speak for whether the senior management at DOT has seen that report or not. I know that it wasn’t directly related to the bypass road, and I have not seen the report. Thank you.

As that road is still under construction, I will speak to the department and the work that they’ve done. They have done some work with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources when that road was being planned. I’m assuming the department, if advised by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, another department of the government, that it would be dangerous to build a road there, that the road would not have been built there, but I will check with the department and get back to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know that there were no baseline studies done on the Highway No. 4. I’d have to get to the department to determine whether or not there was a baseline study done. I’m assuming that there was, and if there was some danger there to building the bypass road there, it would not have been built. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to pay tribute to a young Rhoni Morgan Beaulieu of Fort Resolution. Rhoni was born February 24, 1998, and passed away on August 15, 2014, at the tender age of 16. Rhoni died of smoke inhalation in a house fire.

Rhoni was raised in Fort Resolution by her grandparents Ronnie and Cecile Beaulieu, and she referred to them as mom and dad.

Rhoni had completed Grade 10 and would be going to Grade 11 this fall. She was very active in all kinds of sports from a very young age and was considered a great team player. She had many friends from all over the NWT and...