Wally Schumann

There is no feasible option at this time besides dredging, so, if we were to consider this, we'd have to go back and go through all the process that I just laid out in the previous question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and we want to take this opportunity to reach out to the greater Northwest Territories to update the general public on the situation that's happening at the Liard ferry. As most people know, this time of year, the rivers drop off sharply. In the case of the Liard River, generally this time of year when it does drop down, it actually comes back up after a couple of days, but that hasn't happened in the last three days. It's actually at its lowest level, and we're probably operating our ferry presently at the lowest level that that ferry has operated; it's at 1.65 meters...

This ain't a million dollar answer because I have answered this question a number of times in the House. The winter operations were due to around the Ikhil well and that situation. I have said in this House many a time that the winter operations weren’t effective. The Dempster was closed 40 per cent of the time during that operation. The reason we did that was to secure energy for the community of Inuvik, and that has been addressed through the contractors. We are not committed to putting any more money into the winter operations of that ferry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad to answer this question because this government has done a lot of stuff to help address the cost of living in the Northwest Territories, particularly infrastructure. We have our public highway system. We subsidize ferry operations. We have community airports. All of these things help support the delivery of goods to the communities.

You know, we have to keep our assets in check so we have the efficiency of resupply. Roads are particularly probably the cheapest way to get stuff to communities, depending on where you are. What this government has committed, as the Finance Minister said...

Yes, we will closely work with the Member on his particular region around these projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there were, but I think it is important that we get this information out there.

The environmental assessment process was initiated by the government in 2013 for the full proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway. The proposed project was rescoped in 2015 to focus on the section of highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells. In February of 2015, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board released its terms of reference, requiring further studies to be undertaken by the department in order to complete the developer assessment report for the environmental assessment.

The...

As I have said, in the coming weeks here, we are going to sit down with all the stakeholders in the community to find out what needs to be addressed in the coming months ahead for the next tourist season. During those discussions, the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is going to have to come up with their own tourist development plan. They have to lead it. They are going to have to own it. They are going to have to need it and put it in place. We are there to assist them to do that, but we are also currently in conversation with CanNor to help develop another tourist development workshop in the coming...

These positions, we have rolled out. We had three of them rolled out. We had one in Tuktoyaktuk, one in Hay River, one in Deline.

I think the challenge with what the Member is asking us for a full-time coordinator was these were going to be rolled around the Northwest Territories as the demand increased in other communities. This is an ongoing funding, I think, for a little bit, but we're going to sit down and look at which next three communities wanted to apply for this.

I know we're going to sit down with the community here shortly as I have said and all the stakeholders and see what is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continually communicate with all the residents of the Northwest Territories and residents and businesses with these annual shut-downs of these ferries. We know it's interruptive, and we will continue to communicate with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I looked into this matter, and I was informed by the department that 20 years ago we contracted Cooper's Barging with an excavator to have a look at doing this, and it was very unsuccessful and it wasn't able to be done. Another attempt to dredge this channel would need to involve a number of things, now, in light of the new regulatory system that's out there. We would have to do environmental studies on it, approval from multiple organizations, we'd have to go to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, the DFO, and of course, there's always going to be a funding issue. So, at this point...