Wally Schumann

Yes, I will get it to the Member by June 29th, end of business day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

By the end of this session, June 29th.

I’m not sure if I could commit to have that done by end of session. I’ll have to check with the department and see when we will be applying that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is well aware, I guess this time of year is our routine maintenance and the crews are getting out there and doing all the routine stuff that’s done in the springtime from culvert thawing to, you know, straightening the signs and other stuff. I suspect that the department will be doing the application of calcium in the short order that is coming up here. You know road safety is the number one importance to us, so I can double check on that and get back to the Member exactly when it will be. Just putting that out. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. O’Reilly on February 22, 2016, regarding Bathurst caribou management. The Government of the Northwest Territories, or GNWT, acknowledges the hardships experienced by communities who are unable to partake in caribou harvesting activities and is working very hard in collaboration with partners to put actions, plans and processes in place to support the recovery of the herd on a number of fronts. Restricting harvest is not the only management action that is being taken to address the status of the Bathurst herd nor is it one that is...

I have quite a few people in the gallery today. Maxime Gauthier, Sheldon Whitlock, Donna Lee and Reagan Jungkind, and Ms. Ann Firth, and Myrtle Graham, my CA, and also the NWT Seniors’ Society. Thank you.

I want to thank the Member for that because this is one of the reasons that this Assembly has gone into what we have done to see what we do with our budgets to increase funding for this type of stuff for small communities and create employment for the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation is reviewing the recent proposal from the hamlet of Aklavik, which was done up by some consultants for them, to finish up the bridge span on Willow River to access the granular the Member is talking about. The department is anticipating a large number of applicants for this small amount of money that we have. We anticipate it exceeding by $500,000 again probably this year. We are reviewing the community of Aklavik’s proposal, and we will be getting back to the Member as soon as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The department and the federal government are partners, and we are certainly open to receiving any ideas and encouraging all Canadians to help in order to celebrate this historic event. We look forward to any ideas of how we want to do this grand opening.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have stated last week in the House on my update, the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway construction project remains on schedule within the approved budget of $299 million. The project has employed over 500 people at the peak of this winter’s construction season. Approximately 74 per cent of the workforce came from the Beaufort Delta region. As the winter construction season has come to a close, the company will be preparing to move on with next season’s surfacing of the top layer of gravel on the highway and finishing off the remaining three-and-a-half kilometres of...