Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 7 on the Order Paper.
---Unanimous consent granted,
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask questions to the Minister of Transportation in light of the Minister’s comments to the Deh Cho Bridge that we’re out of the water. I think we’re out of the water and may be high and dry on the land, but we’re moving on. I want to ask the Minister about the Deh Cho Bridge situation. There are other bridges to be built in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister, once we’re done -- hopefully we’re done dealing with the Deh Cho Bridge issue here -- that we can focus and concentrate on other bridges in the Northwest Territories. Would the department consider looking at a strategy as to how do we start looking at the other bridges in a serious manner such as the one we’ve been dealing with on the Deh Cho Bridge in terms of having it completed so the people in the rest of the Northwest Territories can also have bridges to cross?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Right now we still continue to work on some of the Mackenzie Valley bridges through the Building Canada funding. I think we are going to have to see the Deh Cho Bridge come to a conclusion and regroup to see and revisit the concept of P3 to see if that’s still something that the Members of this House would support. Failing that, I guess we would have to wait for the federal government to provide money to build the bridges.
If we stay on target and time frame, the completion of Deh Cho Bridge will be November 2011. I hope between now and 2011 the department can give some serious consideration to looking at the other bridges and thinking outside the box, as the Minister says, and being innovative and creative. How do we put together some bridges like the Peel, the Bear, and Liard bridges that need to be looked at? We still need to have a P3 concept proposal in front of us to approve it and go ahead with it. Certainly we have learned a lot there. I’m just asking the department if they would begin some initial discussions on concepts and how do we go about, with the help of Members on this side, to have bridges in the Mackenzie Valley.
I’m glad there are still some fans out there that support the concept of P3. I still think it is a mechanism and tool for us to look at ways we can approach some of our infrastructure that doesn’t involve the federal government coming forward to fully fund a project. We need to do that. We have to take stock of how things have transpired over the last while with the Deh Cho Bridge.
We have certainly a number of bridges out there that would need to be built over the next while. The Liard, and the Peel and the Bear are all part of that, Bosworth Creek. We need funding for those projects, and I think some of those may be included as part of the assessment of the work that’s going to be done through the project description reports that we have embarked on. We’ve signed agreements with the Inuvik-Tuk people and the PDR work is already completed there and the report is available. The Gwich’in has just recently signed an agreement with us to do a lot of work on the lands that they represent. The Sahtu has also moved forward to do some work on a PDR. The Deh Cho has indicated they want to have some discussions on a portion of the Mackenzie Highway, PDR work that needs to be done in the area that their traditional lands are on.
So we would anticipate that that would include bridges and infrastructure that would allow a Mackenzie Valley Highway to be built, so those things would be costed out and those things would be included as part of the package. There are other projects, of course, such as the Peel that is outside of the Mackenzie Valley Highway system and the PDR work that’s being looked at. So I think we have to try to be creative as we move forward. There’s not a lot of room when it comes to projects of that nature and that size, and we have to be able to either attract federal dollars or look at the P3 type where there’s a partnership arrangement. Those things have to be considered and that’s what we have to look at as we develop our new plans. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister, in light of what he said, will the department, sometime within the life of this government, come forward with a bridge strategy in the Mackenzie Valley in terms of the bridges that I listed off, come to us and we could have some discussion and know, hopefully, that we can put as much energy as we have done into the Deh Cho Bridge into the other bridges that we need in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, we have put a lot of energy in bridges and upgrading our highways outside of the Deh Cho Bridge. The Deh Cho Bridge, of course, has received most of the attention, but we did a lot of work on the Bear River Bridge, for example, right to the point of where we’re ready to do construction. However, we failed to attract federal investment and the project was priced out of our budgeting ability.
We have, to date, I think, built 39 bridges, mostly in the Member’s riding, so we have put a lot of attention, and, of course, not all of it is recognized and given credit for, but we are working hard on bridges. There are still, I believe, five major bridges that have to have some kind of a strategy included. I can’t guarantee that’s going to happen in the life of this government. Some of it is going to be included in the project description report studies that are being done and those could take up to two years. So there is a time factor and, of course, our term is going to be up in two years. It will be close. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to certainly have a drive with me on the Sahtu goat trail there and look at our bridges and see what type of repairs and work that needs to be done on them.
Mr. Speaker, again, if the department then would look at the P3 policy -- I know it’s somewhere within the House here, in the committee -- in terms of having that established. We’ve certainly got to look at some creative and innovative ways to start building some of these major bottlenecks into the Sahtu region or the Gwich’in or to the Deh Cho, Nahendeh, sorry, to capitalize on the wealth and the economics that the region could offer to the Northwest Territories. Right now it’s certainly been lacking in terms of what we can contribute to the rest of the GDP in the North here.
I have driven on the road, the Mackenzie Valley, all the way to Norman Wells, a beautiful, scenic ride, a smooth ride. I didn’t see any goats, Mr. Speaker. However, it is a nice ride and there are certainly bottlenecks along the route. There are places that a bridge would address a lot of the concern and extend the season.
The Bear River is a challenge every year. It’s an area that has overflow; it’s an area that takes a long time to construct an ice road. There is a very large detour that we have to build annually and it’s costly. So I would like to be able to, at some point, come forward with some more information as we compile all the work that’s been done. Some of the economic assessments on this highway and others have proven that it’s very beneficial to improve the infrastructure. It lowers the cost of living and it certainly generates a lot of employment and economic opportunities. So that’s something we have to pursue. We are at a point where we have to upgrade all our strategies and that’s what we’ll be embarking on. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement wherein I spoke about the Medical Travel Policy and some of the issues around non-medical escorts. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, maybe she can remind the public some of the details around the Medical Travel Policy and non-medical escorts, because that’s where I seem to be having the issues. Just as a starter, Mr. Speaker, perhaps she can detail some of the Medical Travel Policy guidelines. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our Medical Travel Policy allows for our residents to be provided with one escort. Sometimes it’s because the patient needs physical support or mental support or language support. So that is the policy we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
With regard to the non-medical escorts, who makes the actual call to have the non-medical escorts accompany… In the two cases that I spoke about in my Member’s statement, there were spouses there, Mr. Speaker. So who would actually authorize or designate these non-medical escorts to travel along with the spouse in the medevac plane and/or immediately soon thereafter? Thank you.
Generally speaking, it would be between the patient or the patient’s immediate family and the health care professional on the ground. They would talk about the need for a person to be medevaced, whether it’s Yellowknife to any other places, for what reason and that there would be all the people involved working together.
The situation that the Member described in his Member’s statement, I don’t want to get into the details of it, and I do not know the details other than what he said. But I would like to say that in certain circumstances, the medical personnel on a medical flight may say either they don’t have room for any other person than the patient or it could be a medical situation where any other non-medical person could interfere with the treatment that the patient has to receive. I’d be happy to follow up with the Member on details if he wishes to share that privately. Thank you.
But still, like even if there’s no room on the medevac, you can still designate a non-medical escort. What that designation does there, Mr. Speaker, is it authorizes expenses to be covered for the spouse. Because in these two cases they travelled after their spouses. Their first thought, of course, is the care and concern and the health of their spouse, and the second one is now they’ve got all these out-of-pocket expenses, which they now have to worry about. My issue is that the spouses were not designated as non-medical escorts right off the start there, Mr. Speaker. I am not too sure why this is. The injured spouses were incapacitated. They didn’t understand forms. They were heavily medicated. In fact, the doctors were wondering where the spouses were. My issue is that this is becoming more and more of a trend, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister to see if she can make an inquiry about it, or was there a policy change that we are trying to save money by not sending non-medical escorts, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there have not been any changes to the Medical Travel Policy. The policy is that we do provide an escort for eligible patients. In normal circumstances, the health care professional would consult with the family to see who is the best person to go. Going by the description of the situation, it might have been a situation where the medical staff had to respond right away to send this person and that is probably why that is how that person was designated. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I chose to raise this issue because it is, like I said, becoming two incidents within the last three months. It is quite disturbing to the family. Now they had to recover costs and worry about that, but initially I still do not understand. The family still does not understand why the spouse who was injured or very sick was not assigned or designated an eligible spouse. That is the issue I would like to raise with the Minister. I would like her to check into it. Maybe there is an internal memorandum that has to go around and say, look, are we applying the policy correctly in these cases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, yes, I would be happy to commit to follow up on this and work with the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority to see what happened in those two cases. I am sure that they have lots of information to help us with that, and if there are any clarifications or enforcement needed, I would also present that to them. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation in regards to the area of chipseal or basically some sort of program that can be used to upgrade or resurface the Dempster Highway. At some point we are going to have to resurface that highway. We are already looking at the widening, which hopefully in the next couple of years will be concluded, but we will have to find a product to surface the Dempster in the future.
I would like to ask the Minister in regards to the possibility of a pilot project. I know I have asked this to three previous Ministers of Transportation. They thought it was a great idea then, but still it hasn’t seen the light of day. I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, would he seriously consider looking at the possibility of a joint effort between the Hamlet of Fort McPherson and the Department of Transportation to look at some sort of a resurfacing of the Dempster. Also, I believe the Hamlet of Fort McPherson is also considering investing some of their dollars to do some upgrades in the community. I think it is important that we work in conjunction with each other. I would like to ask the Minister, has his department had an opportunity to consider this idea and whereabouts is it.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it is a great idea.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised the issue of the Dempster for quite a few years now. We have been working hard to address some of the issues in terms of reconstruction that was required for that portion of the road in the North. It is something that has been quite challenging as finances have been difficult to acquire over the last while. We have managed to set a budget of I think about $8 million now annually to move a little quicker and getting more on that road. That has been our focus to respond to some of the concerns out there, try to get the road widened, to try to get the section straightened and put a lift on other areas that would help this road become more and better improved.
We also had committed to the Member that we would look at seeing how we could incorporate at least a test of doing some kind of dust suppression on it. I think, up to now, we have only been covering about 100 kilometres of this road with dust suppressant, calcium. We started looking at it. We have not talked with the municipality. We were not aware that we were at a stage where they are considering doing some chipseal, but we will commit to doing that. We have done some work on our own and the economics of it, but we certainly can commit to talking to the community. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to sit down with the hamlet and also Fort McPherson is one of the communities that did receive main street chipseal funding in which they chipsealed the main street. Again, at some point they are going to have to upgrade it, extend it or find a way of maintaining that strip of chipseal. I think it is important that they do consider their options. One of their options is to look at the possibility of working on other streets in the community and also maintain what they already have, so build off of that.
I would just like to ask the Minister exactly how soon is it possible for himself or his department to sit down with myself and the community of Fort McPherson to the hamlet council and see if there is a possibility of a project that we can work on jointly coming forward and hopefully it could be brought by way of maybe by this summer starting the feasibility and the planning and see exactly where we can go from there. I would just like to ask that from the Minister.
Mr. Speaker, sitting down with the municipality we can do right away including the MLA. We will have to work around our schedules. We have done some financial analysis and looked at different options that we have in front of us. I think we can probably rule out the concept of pavement overlay. That is expensive even on the southern parts, even in Alberta. It is a very expensive undertaking. Chipseal we know is something that is relatively cheap compared to pavement. There are other products that are in between, in terms of cost. We have to take a look at that.
Of course, the Member’s riding is clearly quite far on the northern end of the Territory. We need to take that into consideration. Our work in terms of financial analysis is not complete yet. Having heard that the Member’s community is anticipating to do some work either this summer or next summer, I think it would certainly help us in terms of economies of scale.
We will commit to sitting down with them right away. Of course, the final issue would be to see how we would pay for it. We haven’t factored in a budget because we don’t know what it is going to cost. We know that chipseal is around $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000 per kilometre and everything else is probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, quite expensive to do, so we need to have a budget figure. We need to know what the community is doing now and move forward. We will sit down as soon as possible. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, I believe that in order to accomplish this, we are going to have to do it as a pilot project. Like you say, it is one of those projects that we have to test out and see exactly how it will be applied and, more importantly, how it will hold up on the Dempster Highway and other roads in the region. I think it is something that we have to look at in light of climate change and other effects we are seeing. I think that this is something that we as government have to seriously consider. I would just like to ask the Minister again, is it possible to come forward with some sort of a pilot project? I know that it is not going to happen this summer. It probably could happen by next summer. Again, we do have to start those discussions. I would like to ask the Minister again if he can possibly get his people to work along with myself and the Hamlet of Fort McPherson and set up a meeting as soon as possible and see if we can get these discussions going anyhow. Thank you.
We certainly can commit to doing that. I think as a government we’re convinced that chipseal is a good way to protect the surface of the road. It’s also a safety mechanism in terms of dust suppressant. We don’t know what it’s going to cost to do it in the Delta. We need to find that out. We don’t know if it’s going to stand up in terms of having it built in that area of the NWT. Those things are going to be taken into consideration. We can’t commit that we’ll do it all this year but we can certainly do the planning, the costing, and try to include it in next year’s budget. We’ll commit to do that and meet with the community as soon as possible.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think this is a perfect opportunity for the region of the Beaufort-Delta to have this capacity, develop the capacity, and keep it in the region. There are other projects being looked at. I know Inuvik is doing a resurfacing job this summer and there’s the possibility of the extension of the Inuvik airport. There is also work in other airports. I think we have to look at the regional economics of this to see how feasible developing this industry in the Inuvik region is. With the potential of the Mackenzie Highway, this is something that we can look into the future of possibly needing this for more than just the Dempster Highway and other highways in the region, other airports, other infrastructure. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could look at the infrastructure that’s going to be needed to develop this industry in the North, make it a northern-based industry, keep it in the North so that we can do other communities and highways in the Northwest Territories.
As we move forward on trying to develop our roads, reconstruct our roads, we also want to improve the amount of chipseal and hardtop that we have on our infrastructure. We know that by having a long-term plan and commitment that, providing it’s feasible, providing it’s viable, providing it’s something that will be durable enough to put on to the Dempster and into the Delta, this will create opportunity. We know, having looked at the southern end of the Territories where we have been doing it for quite a few years now, we have companies here in Yellowknife and in Hay River that are generating a lot of work from the projects that we have. I’m assuming that the opportunity will open up a business possibility in the Member’s riding or Inuvik once we make the commitment to do the long-term work.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation and it’s about a road situation in his constituency, but my constituents have to drive over the road. I know I’ve talked to the Minister about this before. My constituency ends at the Hay River/Enterprise border. Your constituency starts at the same spot. But just beyond there, on the highway -- and I know your people have gone out and looked at it and you may have gone out and looked at it too -- there is an erosion on the roadside there that literally when you look down it’s a straight down cliff. It’s like the water that must be coming from under the road has actually carved out a gorge going down there. Now, somebody I assume from Transportation put some of that orange snow fence across this gorge. I don’t know if that’s meant to catch the people who go through when the road caves in or if it’s meant to catch boulders that are going down in the erosion. I’m not sure what the snow fence is intended for. Would the Minister tell me, has he seen what I’m talking about?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t seen what the Member is talking about, but the Member has told me three times now that there is a problem. I think the day after it was brought to our attention we had our people go out to the area that is of concern. There are some issues that have to be dealt with there. I believe we have a plan to remedy the situation, I just don’t have it with me today. I certainly can commit to providing that information to the Member about the project in my riding.
The Minister mentions that I’ve brought this up three times. He must think I’m nagging him. I would like to know, I know he sent his people out to look at it, but I would like to know if the Minister would commit to having some kind of an engineer or somebody that builds roads look at this. Because I am very serious; the last time that I drove over that little spot and looked down there I was surprised. Even myself, a layperson, I could see that there had been further erosion. What I’m afraid is that there could be something that needs to be X-rayed under the road to see if there is some kind of a cavern developing under there, because it would be a very sad thing if somebody went over that and the road washed out. It could create a very serious injury for a person driving a motor vehicle there. I’m not saying there aren’t engineers in Hay River, but could we get an assessment of what’s causing that and what the remedy is?
That cause for concern has been looked at for a couple of years now. Our people have been monitoring the situation. As the Member brought the issue forward to me last year, I had our officials confirm that there is an issue there. They went to the site again and there are plans being made to remedy the situation. We’ll share that information with the Member and provide the reassurance that it’s not going to collapse or that the testing is done to ensure the safety factor will not be a concern anymore.
This will be my final supplementary. I do know the Minister does drive that road from time to time. Just before he gets to Paradise Gardens, if he could just look down to the right. It’s just before Paradise, but the person who hits that road when it caves in will be going to Paradise. If he could just commit to visually himself look at it so he’s familiar with it, I would really appreciate it.
I’m familiar with where the Paradise...
---Laughter
...the problem is and I will certainly stop and take a look at it. In fact, the next time I’m in the area I will go there with some of our officials and take a look at it personally.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
