Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to the Member's question the other day, he did ask me, and this will clarify it a little bit more. Assuming that the full bid is 100 percent Northwest Territories and local content, the contractor would need approximately $16 million to max out the $500,000 bid adjustment. On the majority of contracts, there are a number that are under $1 million. Those contractors can receive a bid adjustment up to $200,000, which represents about 20 percent of the bid adjustment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Historically, the rivers are at a 10-year low right now from the last time I got an update from our staff. The one thing that MTS did this year was factor in the possibility of that. The way we operated this year is we adjusted our loads for shallower draft. The low-water levels on the Mackenzie River haven't hampered our schedule. The other nice thing was, I have talked about it in this House, with the Steam River bridge that was on fire and the fuel company picked up the slack and delivered the fuel to Hay River by truck. It actually got there earlier than anticipated, so that helped assist...

Mr. Speaker, early in the life of the 18th Legislative Assembly our government made a commitment to secure funding for the advancement of new strategic infrastructure corridors. It is a commitment that we made in Connecting Us, the Northwest Territories 25-year Transportation Strategy, as well as in our government's mandate.

The three priority transportation corridor projects our government is pursuing are the Tlicho All-Season Road, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and the Slave Geological Access Corridor. Each of these projects will help connect communities, support employment and training...

As per the conversation yesterday with the Minister of Finance, he is in charge of the fibre line, but, as maybe the Member is not quite aware of, the table that I am responsible for with Minister Bains is that we have allocated money, or the federal government has allocated money through our discussions, to support rural communities with infrastructure to have Internet across Canada; 50 up, 10 down. That's the federal government's responsibility. They're working on that. They've allocated, I believe, some money to do that in the North in rural and remote communities. As the Finance Minister...

That is something I think that we are going to have a look at and evaluate as this project goes forward because this is a very unique project because the Tlicho government worked side by side with us to bring this project to fruition, and they were a big supporter of what we were doing. The federal government obviously supported the process that we are doing under the P3 concept that they had, that is now rolled up. However, we want to try this out, make the best benefits we can for the Tlicho residents and their businesses and see the opportunities and see how this works out, but that is not...

The Member is absolutely right. I don't have that level of detail here, but we can gather that once he sends me an email and get back to him by the end of session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This information is all publicly available on the Department of Finance's website, but if the Member will give me the questions, if he sends me an email with the questions, I will commit to getting him all of that information back by the end of the session.

The Marine Training Centre doesn't follow under the Government of the Northwest Territories, but they are leasing space from us in our facility in Hay River. The Member from the Sahtu and myself actually had a chance. I took him there and gave him a little tour of the facility, met a number of students who are there.

I have said earlier in my Minister's statement around Marine Transportation Services they have delivered hundreds of courses through there. A number of people have been picked up by MTS for employment this year, as well as Canadian Coast Guard that also picked up some people. As I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The 2019 sailing season is actually on schedule right now as we predicted going forward, even with the low water levels that have been on the Mackenzie River. We have already been to every community once. Presently, two tugs are northbound out of Hay River. They are going to be going to Norman Wells, Tulita, and Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. From Tuktoyaktuk, there is also going to be another tow going north to look after the Arctic communities. When we are finished that, if sailing allows, we are going to help with the North Warning defence system to do their deliveries...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Menzie McEachern, director of mineral and petroleum resources. On my immediate right is Joel Marion, senior legislative advisor. On my far right is Christina Brownlee, the drafter. Thank you, Mr. Chair.