Wally Schumann

Again, we met with the joint venture group and their insurance providers to complete a discussion around the incidents that happened last year. There were a couple of trucks that went off the road. There were a number of fires that took place. The department does not have an accident investigator, as many of us know in this House, but we do have our guys that go out there and do the dangerous goods checks, secure of cargo on the loads, check the log books, those sorts of things.

I can update the House that we followed up with the joint venture operators who investigated the accidents last...

I'm not aware of a requirement to replace any pier on the Deh Cho Bridge. This bridge has been functioning well since it opened in 2012, and as far as I'm concerned there's no need for that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The cost of this preventative work is actually covered by various bridge capital projects. It's ongoing preventative bridge maintenance across our system, and it's there to extend the life of our bridge assets.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize Charles Thornton, Ph.D., P.E., from Easton, Maryland; Larry Grimms from Haymarket, Virginia; Darrell Beaulieu, president and CEO of Denendeh Investments; Margaret Gorman, chief operating officer, Denendeh Investments; and Dave Ramsay, director of Denendeh Investments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, the Government of Northwest Territories is in the process of reviewing Arctic Energy Alliance programs and services to ensure programs represent the best value for money on these programs and meet the goals that we want to achieve, particularly around our energy strategy moving forward. I can update the Member, as of right now, I think that we are in the process of awarding an RFP for that work, and it should be getting under way by next month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member's comments are duly noted. Like I said, we are doing the engineering, geotechnical, and design work. This is also a two-year project, so we are going to try and get all that stuff in 2018-2019, and depending what comes out of that, in the second year that construction will take place. We will keep the Member informed on what is going on out there. We definitely do not want to be building something that is replacing an existing facility that is not going to meet the needs of the people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that is a discussion that maybe the Member can have with our regional office and give those ideas forward to the regional superintendent regarding how we can improve that. With types of infrastructure around cellular and stuff, that is something that is driven by industry, but maybe there is an opportunity when in front of committee as the Minister of Infrastructure, maybe some of these federal funds might be a possibility to help address some of those types of things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Going forward, the one thing I am going to be able to commit to is that we are engaged with the federal government, as I said in my Minister's statement today, on the low carbon economy leadership fund. This is a fund that we believe can be used to help top up the Arctic Energy Alliance, and we believe it could actually even be in the million-dollar range to help support these programs moving forward. We will continue to update Members as we get more criteria and results from the federal government on where that is going.

The scope of this project would require design options to mitigate the issue of low water levels at the boat launch, the parking area will need to be expanded and defined to accommodate more vehicles, and a new location for a boat launch will be needed to be identified. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll have to get that level of detail on how we're going to be allocating that type of work and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.