Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know how many full-time safety officers that the GNWT had. However, I do know that this is a piece of work that has been in the works for seven years. It has taken a lot of work and lots of reviewing of a lot of acts and regulations. In fact, there were 14 different health and safety acts and regulations that were reviewed in order to come up with this agreement and this partnership with the Northern Safety Association.

Thank you. Certainly, anything that the community, the Fort Providence Metis Council and the Deh Gah Got’ie First Nations wish to do with that opportunities money that involves transportation, whether it be highways or marines, the department would be prepared to work with that community in order to develop something so that, as the Member indicates, it’s not so much a drive-by community, because the bridge is in and the traffic does flow through more readily than it used to with the ferry. So, yes, we will be prepared to work with those two organizations to try to develop something that can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has entered into a Community Opportunities and Involvement Agreement with the community, paying the community $200,000 a year until the bridge is paid off, over 35 years. So that money is for the community to take a look at tourism opportunities and any opportunities that they may want to look at as far as tourism, such as a museum for transportation, marine transportation in that area and so on. Thank you.

Thank you. The best thing the Department of Transportation could probably do is continue to work with the local industry and lobby the federal government for more money to do the dredging. The federal government recognizes that there are areas that have to be dredged, so it’s not like they don’t think it’s necessary. Everybody agrees that it’s completely necessary. We would be happy, as a department, to continue to work with industry. I would also be happy to facilitate a meeting between the federal government and industry in order to complete some dredging. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The dredging of any rivers or ports is the responsibility of the federal government. However, we have, in the past, participated and I believe in 2012-13 we got some money from the federal government and we did some dredging right at the port. So we continue to work with the federal government to see if there’s money that can be had to continue the dredging.

Mr. Speaker, the health and safety of our employees is of utmost importance in ensuring we have a strong workforce, able to provide services to residents of the NWT. We have been working aggressively to uphold and enhance occupational health and safety across all Government of the Northwest Territories worksites.

To this end, we are pleased to confirm the launch of the GNWT’s corporate Occupational Health and Safety Training Program. OHS training helps all employees understand the value of health and safety to reduce workplace injuries. There are two streams. One focuses on training for all...

Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I recognize that this agreement with the Northern Safety Association allows them to go out and get some specialists in certain fields. I am told by the individuals from that organization and the department that this will actually be an agreement that will assist us in the issues that were recognized in the House here over the last couple of years, where there were some fines and so on levied by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission from workplace injuries and so on, and how they would try to focus in on the key areas that we’ve identified in the House; the hospitals, the corrections...

Thank you. The department is prepared to look at the cost of maintaining the stretch of highway from the ferry on the north side of the river to the old ice crossing. Right now the only program that we have available is a capital program, the Access Roads Program, and that would be something that would go to make sure that road doesn’t deteriorate and that would probably be summer work. But one of the main things where work is needed was to clear the snow. So we’re going to work with the community to, first of all, determine the cost of that because it’s not in any program, and then determine...

Thank you. The Department of Transportation has tried to find positions for individuals that were working on the ferry and the ice crossing. So at this point, the individuals that normally built the ice crossing will be given opportunities to assist on the Dempster ice crossing if they wish to do so. There were 13 employees on the ferry, most of them being casual employees, but three affected full-time employees. One retired. One of those positions was maintained by the department and another one had moved to run a different ferry, at Fort Simpson, actually. Thank you.