Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While I was asking questions to the Minister of Public Works yesterday, he mentioned that if the community was in support of building the parking lot for Moose Kerr School, he would look towards that. The community does have a motion that they would like to see action taken on that.
I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works, will the Minister ensure they stockpile gravel to build a pad at the school in Aklavik before the spring is over? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Department of Public Works ensures that the community has a stockpile in each community for the work that’s required during that year. In 2013, the haul this year, we had a plan to put a stockpile in Aklavik and we were advised by the community that there was a local contractor that had sufficient stockpile of granular material that we could use, so we didn’t stockpile any further, but we think there’s enough material there for us to do our work.
Is the Minister saying that they do have enough gravel at the moment to build a pad for Moose Kerr School for the parking lot? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What I’m saying is that for all the capital plan activities that require granular material, there was sufficient granular material for that. I’m not sure if part of that plan included construction of a parking lot for Moose Kerr School. If the community is wishing to do that, that becomes part of the capital, but I do know that at the beginning of the year all the capital that was planned and the need for granular material, we had enough in Aklavik to do that. Thank you.
For sure the parking lot isn’t in the capital plan because this issue just came up in the last couple of weeks. The Minister did state that if it was a major concern for the community that they would pursue that.
With the emotion in place from the hamlet, will the Minister ensure that the department acts on this issue as soon as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The requirement for granular material in Aklavik was 23,300 cubic metres of granular material, which was about 3,250 cubic metres for the GNWT and the balance of it being needed by the hamlet. So the hamlet had indicated that the projects they would like to run during the year and had indicated that they had sufficient granular material. If the hamlet is going to move some of the material, assuming that they had only that amount, that they don’t have a surplus, and they need to move off another project, I guess that’s a discussion that will occur with the hamlet locally.
We were advised that with the projects we were running, there is certainly sufficient granular material. So, hopefully there is enough to do all of the projects, plus the parking lot. That is our hope today, but I don’t have a very recent update as of today whether or not all of these projects, plus the parking lot, is what we have granular material for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to be on the safe side, the community is planning to make a road up to the gravel source at Willow River.
Will the Minister ensure that they do have sufficient gravel in the community for all the projects, including the parking lot at Moose Kerr School? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Part of the 18,000 cubic metres of granular material that the hamlet is to use this summer is also material for Willow River, so there is a plan to start using some of this granular material to build to that gravel source. Aside from that, we can work with the community to make sure there is sufficient granular material to do all the projects, including the parking lot. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
