Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Companies like these two that the Member is referring to, they service a different market and do different types of work. Cooper's Barging, for example, maybe a lot of people don't realize, but they don't haul fuel. Their barges are only set up for deck cargo.

Companies like these, too, that the Member is referring to, they service a different market and do different types of work. Cooper’s Barging, for example, maybe a lot of people don’t realize, but they don’t haul fuel. Their barges are only set up for deck cargo. In rare, extreme cases they have hauled fuel on top...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I stated in the House, we have checked what is in stock in Sachs Harbour, and there is enough there to meet the demand until next sailing season. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. The first thing I want to highlight for the Member: I think us buying MTS had a positive impact on him because Lutselk'e had two years of delivery of goods and fuel in his riding.

What we are going to do from this point forward is, as I have said in various different statements, we are going to hire another communications person, work closely with the communities on goods and delivery of services to the communities. We are working with Coast Guard on the sea ice issue and a number of other issues that we are going to address, hopefully, with him going forward around...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Without getting the exact timing, my understanding is it took the Coast Guard about ten days to reposition the buoys. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. MTS is presently operating where it traditionally has in the past. The majority of our work is in the Northwest Territories, with some work in Nunavut and a small amount in Alaska. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is only our second operational season. We haven't looked at those things yet. If the Members remember correctly, we bought this thing in December, and we had to have it up and running by the following May, which we did, and we made a profit the first year, with all of the challenges that we had around that, with one-time costs associated with bringing boats back down from the High Arctic to insurance and Lloyd's of London and inspections and staffing and crewing. There was a huge challenge around that, and the department pulled it off and got our first year done.

We...

You know, we have had a lot of discussions in this House about where infrastructure money should go, and a lot of people believe that it should go to education, health, and housing infrastructure.

When we go down to these meetings with our federal colleagues and provincial and territorial colleagues, the criteria is clearly laid out. The federal government has said that our bilaterals are for green infrastructure; public transit; social infrastructure, which is community, culture, and recreational bilateral; rural northern communities; and Arctic Energy Fund. That is the criteria that I have to...

I can maybe take a crack at it, and then maybe the deputy or someone wants to step in. The easiest way I look at it, from a business point of view, is, first of all, if I were a business guy, why would I want to buy MTS? When you get into a situation like this here, there is so much risk there that, to me, for that type of investment, it would be very challenging to turn a profit in this environment. There is so much risk involved around climate change alone and even sovereignty.

There are a number of things that I think we will have to look at from a data point of view. It would even be from a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have laid out before, first of all, how are you going to haul millions of litres of fuel to Tuktoyaktuk? We can do that. That's by truck. Trucking is going to cost you a heck of a lot of money to get the fuel up there, way more than it ever is going to be on a railhead to bring it to Hay River. The terminal is there. It is the most northern railroad in Canada.

We also have, as I said, the Synchro Lift there, which is millions of dollars of assets to build something like that up there, to be able to lift the barges and the vessels out of the water to do maintenance and...