Wally Schumann

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...

I can certainly check with the department for exactly what we used and share that with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have stated in the House, this is early days on this purchase of this asset. We are having to look at those options going forward. As I have said in the House many times, we need more than one or two seasons' data to have a look at this, but the department is certainly having to look at various models of what the end game will be. Those decisions will be made once we get more data and input to be able to make a decision around that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, our portion is coming out of the MTS Revolving Fund. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

A bridge could possibly be a priority across the Liard River, but not at this point. As all Members know, we are pushing the envelope here on infrastructure funding to try to complete the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I believe that is our priority right now. Based on our mandate, that is what we are working on.

There would be some challenges, though, with having a floating bridge, I think, because of the fluctuation of the water that we see, particularly on the Liard because it is tied to the BC mountains. We can certainly have a look at that sometime, but, right now, that is not a priority of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, we have to point out there are millions of litres of fuel that get shipped up there. This isn't one of Basset's B-train loads here we are talking about. We are talking millions of litres.

The wear and tear on the highway would be on the Dempster, and stuff would have to be considered, but right now, as we start moving commodities anywhere around this country, marine and rail is the cheapest way to do it. There's no getting around that at this point. There are also safety and environmental issues if you were trucking it. There would be more risks involved in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I believe the briefing will be in public, and we can supply that at the same time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, we have done some preliminary investigation regarding the potential alternate landing site that the Member is talking about. It could extend the ferry service up to a month, depending on the weather and the water levels. There are some challenges still with this option. I think we have talked about this in the House before.

The ferry crossing would be 11 kilometres along the Mackenzie Valley River and take an hour-and-a-half compared to the seven-minute crossing at the present site, where it's located right now, on the Liard River.

Of course, with that, if we are going to do 11-kilometre...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can make sure we have someone from petroleum products to explain it to committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.