Tom Beaulieu

Thank you. The department has been discussing with industry, increased usage of the road due to economic activity. So, yes, the department is aware of that and has been discussing the possible impacts to the road with industry.

Thank you. The piers have been mapped with scour rock over the past summer. There has been a stockpile of rock, 6,000 cubic metres of rock has been stockpiled. A public tender for shaping and placing the rock is out and it closes today. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In the plan, DOT has $3 million scheduled for 2014-15. That would be used for resurfacing and chipsealing sections of that highway. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, we haven’t made a final determination of what that lobbying would look like. We can keep the Members advised as we move through the plan to determine how we hope to launch our lobbying efforts with the federal government. Thank you.

At this time we are discussing the feasibility of perhaps traveling to Ottawa to discuss this directly with the Minister, or waiting for the federal government to do the allocations based on whichever way they intend to allocate the money that’s put into all of this, including money for the Building Canada Plan or any money as far as municipal infrastructure. Thank you.

I don’t know the various costs of the components broken down into the cost of gravel and so on. As far as the royalties go, yes, we are getting close to coming up with a price that we’re both happy with between ourselves as a government and the land claim organization who owns the land. Thank you.

Like I indicated, we think we do have a good estimate. As the Members know, the money that we are getting from the federal government is not going to be just money given to us without us having proper estimates and so on. So before the money from the federal government starts to flow into our coffers, we have to be able to demonstrate to the federal government that we know what we’re doing and what the cost of the road is going to be. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as far as the loan goes and how the lender had pulled the loan from the…(inaudible)…is something that the department has looked at. At the time this had occurred, this decision was made; however, I don’t have the details of specifically what had occurred, what had occurred in the inner workings of the loan and so on. I am prepared to gather that information to start with. I can look at that information and determine if I do see that there was an issue wrong with it, then I will share it with Members across the floor. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member may be aware, the Auditor General has looked at the bridge, and the mid-project performance review was completed by the Auditor General. All of the recommendations that were put in by the Auditor General were carried out by the department. As I indicated, information I have at this time, all indications are that there is not an issue and that anything that we are picking up during the monitoring and the usability of the bridge and everything, if there are issues, the department is carrying out corrective measures. Right now we are thinking that an evaluation of what...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, effective and efficient government is one of this Assembly’s goals. One of the ways that the Department of Public Works and Services will be helping to support this goal is by hosting the 14th Project Management Conference from December 3rd to 5th. This conference draws together project management experts to share their experiences and discuss best practices and innovative approaches to managing infrastructure projects more efficiently and effectively. Every two years representatives of the North’s project management community gather for this conference...