Wally Schumann

Hay River South

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation has made a commitment in its mandate to restore safe operating conditions in the Port of Hay River by strengthening connections with public and private sectors partners.

The Hay River Harbour remains an essential piece of infrastructure for the NWT marine transportation system. The harbour supports critical services such as those provided by the Canadian Coast Guard and the Department of Defence. As well, industry and communities up and down the river depend on the steady and reliable resupply of essential goods and materials shipped out of Hay...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

As I previously said, the department has programs in place to do maintenance and replacement of the ferries. We want to make sure that everything is safe and efficient and operating going forward, of course. In the long term, all ferries could be replaced by permanent bridges, which the Member also alluded to in his statement today. This would require significant investment from this government to do that.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The particular ferry, the Louis Cardinal ferry, is a short-trip, fresh water vessel. They tend to operate for many years. Right across the country, anything that is operating in fresh water tends to get 60-plus years of operation out of it. The other side of that vessel, though, is the mechanical side of it and the hull maintenance. Those things have a much shorter maintenance life, but we have a scheduled maintenance plan, when to undertake those required rehabilitations, and we continue to do so.

He asked another question. There were actually two questions in there...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

I would have to get more details from the Member on what he is asking.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I've said, we've already submitted the proposal to the federal government. It is on hold right now based on what they're going to do with their infrastructure needs. Hopefully the federal government addresses this project and many other projects that we've submitted under infrastructure for this territorial government in the federal budget coming out in the next couple of weeks. We have done pretty much everything we can do to advance this project until we hear back from them.

Like I said, we're working with ENR on preparing plans for management of caribou, we have...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

First of all, the Canyon Creek access road that we just announced was initiated by the Sahtu region. This was brought forward a long time ago by the people of Sahtu and the Aboriginal governments. They spend a significant amount of time and energy on this project to advance it. It speaks to the benefits like the Member just stated of jobs and employment opportunities and training. Federal opportunities came along at the right time for this project and allowed this project to move forward, and it has.

If the Member's community of Wrigley and the Deh Cho wanted to have an interest in promoting a...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe, on Tourism 2020, we are making quite a bit of progress on a lot of different initiatives. We have just announced the new community tourism coordinator program to advance regional product development and packaging. We are focusing on risk management training, like I just mentioned, in the NWT for tourism operators. We continue to deliver community tours and infrastructure contributions to encourage development of community tourism infrastructure across the Northwest Territories. There are many initiatives under the Tourism 2020 plan, which was there to replace...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think someone asked me this question yesterday, possibly. We invest roughly $5.5 million through grants and contributions and transfers to many tourism initiatives, including NWT tourism, Convention Bureau, Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, and Tourism Product Diversification Program and Tourism 2020. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Mr. Speaker, the last decade has seen our Great Slave Lake fishery hit hard by circumstances well beyond its influence and control. Commercial fishing in our territory has, as a result, declined significantly.

What has not declined is the number of fish in the lake, the quality of this food source, or the proven markets we can use to rebuild our fishery. They offer the opportunity to restore an industry that remains important and vital to our economy and to our territory.

Thanks to changes in our fishery support program, we have seen recent increases to our catch volumes, but there is no silver...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Operating ferries and ice bridges in the Member's area, with a little bit of lower volume of traffic compared to the Providence crossing, which has a high significant volume of traffic, the department has not developed a cost estimate to construct a bridge at the Tsiigehtchic crossing or the Peel. Those would be significant investments. The Deh Cho Bridge cost $200 million. From my recollection, to operate the Louis Cardinal ferry costs over a million dollars a year. You do the math. It is not viable to put a bridge in there at this point.