Wally Schumann

The consultants provided various options and life cycle costs of these assets. Their recommendation was to go with the rehabilitation option for the 35 years.

I can commit to the Member that that's something we can watch closely as things evolve and when Cooper is going to have their first sailing. I do know that the Hamlet of Fort Good Hope took the initiative themselves and cleaned off their landing space, but we will keep an eye on it and work with the Member to see if we can find a solution for this.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. The barge landings across the Northwest Territories, including the one that the Member is talking about in the Sahtu region, are a federal jurisdiction. This is something that we have been working with closely with the federal government to look at to reinstate the funding that they have taken away from the territorial government approximately two years ago, so it's actually a federal jurisdiction, but we're working closely with the Department of Coast Guard and Fisheries to see if we can reinstate the funding for all ports. Thank you.

The department will do temporary repairs as soon as time allows. As I said, the early spring melt and the conditions that are out on our roadways is challenging. We will do everything that we have to do to ensure a safe operation of this road in the meantime but we have to wait for the frost to come out of the ground before we commence working on this, so temporary signage and stuff will be up to ensure safe travel for all.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. To answer the Member's question, the Department of Transportation is indeed responsible for the maintenance and reconstruction of the Hay River road. This section of road was part of the highway devolution agreement that came forward in the late 1980s and the department has funded to operate and maintain this road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I alluded to earlier in my statement that the transportation of Canada inspector was in. He was there to look at the Tsiigehtchic ferry as we replaced the bottom of that ferry and put it in and do its seaworthiness which takes a couple days of trials and stuff. When they were finished that they moved on to the Peel ferry. The Peel ferry is in the process of going through its inspection as such and with the low water now expected after high water from breakup we now have five anchor points available to run this ferry. The original anchor points that showed up after breakup, there were only...

As I said, we took a look at this and we're moving ahead with the rehabilitation process. As far as the funding for the Buffalo River Bridge, that's already been approved by Infrastructure Canada and work planning is already currently underway to proceed with that project. A number of things that we are going to be doing under the rehabilitation process is the truss strengthening, replacement to the half of the deck on some of these bridges, and pier repair and painting as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reconstruction on the Dempster Highway has been in progress for the last several years, and the department has spent numerous amounts of money on widening and doing significant safety improvements on that section of the highway, but due to last year's excessive rain and poor weather conditions, weather hindered the reconstruction work and also the replacement of the delineators for the snow levels and safety stuff that the Member is talking about. The department will be installing these things in the coming construction season, when weather conditions are favourable...

Additional maintenance work is planned for the complete section from the Dempster to the McPherson-Peel River section. We will be looking at all the signage and delineators as work continues this year on the widening of the highway.

Time permitting, I would gladly take up the Member's offer to take me out to the Dempster.