Wally Schumann

ENR will be reviewing these plans coming beginning this April. Risk assessment and fieldwork will commence thereafter. The new plans will be redeveloped and based on existing plans and new data inputs. All plans will be completed by Environment and Natural Resources, and assistance of the affected communities and other departments will begin thereafter with the GNWT.

NWT's transportation strategy identifies three priority transportation corridors which the department is making an effort to advance. The first one is the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the second is the Tlicho all-weather road, and improved access to the Slave Geological Province.

I'd like to reassure the Member that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will work with the Department of Health to make sure that the contaminants, if they're coming into the food system, will be addressed through both departments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a role in a number of areas. We have climate change. We have wildlife. We have other things that we're looking at, water, so I'm sure that would be something that we are looking into. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Bear River Bridge is a very important part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway application to the New Building Canada Plan. To single out Bear River Bridge as a standalone project is a little premature at this time. It's something that can be submitted, possibly, if the federal government comes back with a request for shovel-ready projects, but at this point it's submitted as part of the Mackenzie Valley Highway which is a bigger and larger process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

“Connecting Us,” the department's transportation strategy, identifies the long-term plans for the transportation system, so that the system can support and enable economic development. The strategy identifies three strategic transportation corridors because of the benefits that construction of all-weather roads in these regions will have on NWT residents and long-term economic stability. The Mackenzie Valley Highway will connect several communities to the public highway system, providing transportation efficiencies that will result in a reduced cost of living for residents. The highway will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation is committed to addressing NWT's infrastructure deficit and improving the level of services provided by the NWT transportation system. The department has recently released a 25-year transportation strategy entitled “Connecting Us,” which will guide the actions, and maintain and improve existing infrastructure, expand the highway system to better connect communities and support economic development, and modernize transportation programs and policies to improve service delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will definitely be talking to the departments I related to this issue and we can get back to the Member on how we're going to proceed on that.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is always willing to work with all Aboriginal governments and communities on the harvesting of traditional foods. We have a couple of programs that we use to assist the communities and the people and I'm sure we will continue to do that to assist the Members.

At this time, we don't have any money to put towards what the Member is asking, but we can sit down with the leadership. We are planning a trip into the Sahtu in the near future, so I would look forward to sitting down with the Member and discussing the possibilities of discussing that with the leadership.