Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m going to tag along with Mr. Menicoche on the question of the small community airports. I’m talking specifically about Colville Lake and that project. I know that community has advanced somewhat to the stage of near completion and I wanted to look at continuing to work with the department to design/build a terminal. I know that’s in the books. There’s still work yet to be done to complete the new airport. They went through the learning process and they came out pretty well. I wish the best to the people in Trout Lake to work out similar situations as we have done in Colville Lake. I wanted to ask the Minister when does he anticipate, under the operations and maintenance of this budget, the Colville Lake Airport will be in use and we’ll have everything there.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s our expectation that will be in operation late this fall.
I want just to again relay to the Minister and to the government that the experience up in Colville Lake has been quite good. They did quite well. I think the department did good in this process here. Congratulations to working well with my people.
I want to ask the Minister my second question about the commercial lands at the airports are becoming increasingly scarce in terms of the development of lands. I want to ask the Minister what type of plans he has on the books for advancing the airport commercial lots. People are asking now because things are getting busy in Inuvik here and in different communities and a lot is becoming valuable all over. What are the Minister’s new plans for looking at how we deal with these commercial land developments?
The Member is correct; as we develop resources in the Sahtu, there’s going to be increasing demand for commercial space at our airports, not just here in Yellowknife but in Norman Wells and other airports in the territory. We need to work at finding money to enable us to have those lands available for commercial development. That is going to take advantage of the resource development that’s happening in our territory and other developments that are happening. That’s an important step as we move forward. Perhaps I can go to the deputy minister for more detail on that.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the first objective when we operate an airport system is to ensure there is adequate land on the airport. So in Yellowknife, for example, in order for that airport to address the needs for the next 20 or 50 years, we recently expanded the boundaries of the airport so that there was enough land there to meet the needs over that period of time. The second thing we need to do is make sure that we’ve got lots available so that when economic developments arise and opportunities come, that the airport can be a facilitator of that economic development. Sometimes it takes some capital funding in order to construct the taxiways or land development. That’s where it can be a challenge at times to find the capital funding, but we continue to promote the opportunities and look for creative ways to work with industry and those that want to locate on our airport to partner with us to provide that needed infrastructure.
Norman Wells and what may be happening over the next little while with the Sahtu oil exploration there, we’ve certainly got our eye on that. There is adequate land at the airport. We are getting more requests for developments on the airport and we are more than willing to work with potential tenants and those that want to develop on our airport to ensure that the land, the use of the airport can help meet their needs.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The deputy minister and the Minister are correct that some of our airports are going to become more valuable space lots and that. I do look forward to their advanced airport commercial land development to see where things are at.
I want to ask the Minister, at one time I know that the fee structures within our airport were not fair and consistent. I know the department is doing some work to look at where fairness and consistency right across the board on our fee structures and landing fees. Sometimes I think we could be making more money. I know my constituent in Norman Wells, North-Wright Aviation, has a huge number of terminal fees and leases that we get off the Department of Transportation. I want to know if the department is going to review their fee structures and be fair across the board and see if we need to increase, or are we losing the revenue out of here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. During my opening comments I alluded to the fact that we are going through a review of fees and the structure of those to ensure their fairness and if they are in fact at market rates. We will continue to move that effort along. When we do have some detailed information on what we want to propose, we will certainly be coming back to the Members with those fee schedules and what we anticipate or want to see happen. That should be happening. I would imagine by the end of this year I would hope we could have that work concluded. We could have the information in front of Members so that we could make a decision together on how we move forward with the fee structure.
I have three follow-up questions so I will ask them all at once here. The first one I asked earlier about the airport position in the Sahtu. We have it now. Our office is up in Inuvik. I’d like to certainly see where it would be more advantageous to have it in the Sahtu. I hope the Minister would give some consideration and thoughts to future business plans or something within the next couple months to say yes, that’s something that we can look at. Mr. Minister did give me a little response, but I’m going to ask in this area.
The second one is that the community airports, our airports are pretty busy in Norman Wells and maybe in our smaller communities also. Because of the amount of activity that’s going to happen with the oil and gas, when you start looking at how we start planning for emergency response teams at the community level where the Department of MACA and DOT and Health and Social Services, the RCMP, everybody gets together and looks at how do we respond to emergency situations. We start looking at those types of things. I’d like to see where there’s a little more concentration in those areas and that Norman Wells also gets looked at from a tourism point of view where we would like to see also planes coming into that airport and that the department looks at facilitating some type of process.
My last question. I do want to thank the Minister for that place that we have in Norman Wells where the elders can sit, but I also ask the Minister if he would look at the grizzly bear that’s standing in the airport terminal. There’s a statue of a grizzly bear that one of the fingers is broken off. I would ask if they would look at that and fix that, ITI or Environment, that statue. Get that statue fixed. It’s disrespectful to that grizzly bear. People walking by and...(inaudible)...I don’t like that. I ask if he would fix that for us, please.
We wouldn’t want to disrespect a grizzly. That would be trouble. We’re not sure if that is our bear or maybe ITI’s bear or another government department’s bear, but we will find out and we will get that remedied.
On the emergency planning, that is part of the regulatory requirements when we’re operating an airport. We meet with the RCMP and other emergency agencies and there are full-blown exercises that take place in a variety of communities across the Northwest Territories. Norman Wells is one of them where they go through a full exercise on emergency preparedness and response.
Also, the Member talked about the increased activity at Norman Wells. The activity in a six-month period tripled at the Norman Wells Airport in the area of takeoffs and landings. That’s something we certainly, from an operational perspective, have to keep an eye on and we will continue to keep an eye on that and ensure we have the resources there that are going to address that increased activity in that area. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Next on my list, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had one question in regard to the incident that happened in Inuvik this year. We had that windstorm that blew the roof off the airport. I was just wondering if the department allocated funds for the repair of that roof and whether or not there was a study into the structure of the building to see if there was any more damage that was done from that storm. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s questions. Yes, there was some damage sustained to the Inuvik terminal building this past winter. Public Works and Services was responsible for the repairs that took place to the terminal building. They ran in the order of about $100,000 on the repairs to the terminal building. There is no long-term structural damage to the building itself. It didn’t require repairs and it won’t require any further repairs. However, that building is getting older and at some point in time we will need to look at replacing the air terminal building in Inuvik. Thank you.
Does the Minister know how old the building is in terms of building years and when it does need to be replaced in terms of our policies within our government? Thank you.
Are you looking for a capital project, Mr. Moses? Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe the original structure there dates back to when Inuvik was first moved over, the late ‘60s. There were a number of additions added to the existing structure to get us to where we’re at today, but certainly the main component of that building dates back to the late ‘60s. Thank you.
No further questions, Madam Chair, but duly noted on the structure of the building, and thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Next on my list, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to begin, I have one of the communities in my riding, which is Tsiigehtchic, who I’m sure would really enjoy having an airport. They’re one of the very few communities in the Northwest Territories that don’t have that luxury. Hopefully, within the next couple of years we could see that in the budget.
We do have the community of Aklavik who is hoping to, in the near future, have an extension on the airport, on the airstrip there. I know it was planned, I think, a year or two ago. I’m not sure what happened there, but I’m hoping that we could get that into the budget, hopefully, in the fall. I know it was done in Fort McPherson. I know the community of Aklavik would really appreciate if we could extend that airstrip.
Also, in Inuvik this past winter we’ve had a number of planes that couldn’t land due to the conditions of the airstrip. I’m hoping that we could increase the funding going to that community so we could ensure the safety of our residents. One thing I’ve noticed while flying during the winter is we don’t have any current technology that does de-icing of the planes. It’s mostly done manually. Within the near future here I’d like to see us getting with 2012 here and getting the proper technology to de-ice our planes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a runway length study conducted a number of years ago in the Northwest Territories on runway lengths and communities were looked at. The community of Aklavik was not deemed to be a priority at that time for a runway extension. If the Member feels that maybe that’s changed or something’s changed in the community that would make that more of a priority, we would be willing to listen to that.
On the other item on de-icing and the equipment for de-icing, that’s an air carrier issue, so if the air carrier is providing service into a community, it’s their responsibility to provide the de-icing equipment for their equipment on the ground in the various communities around the territory. Thank you.
The other concern was the condition of the actual landing in the community of Inuvik. Thank you.
Mr. Neudorf, please.
Madam Chair, we do have an own-force operation at the Inuvik Airport that provides maintenance service there. Like any airport in any part of the world, you do get challenges by weather and have to deal with unexpected weather conditions. I know not the past winter but the one before in particular, we were having some big fluctuations in the temperatures at the Inuvik Airport that caused frost to occur on the runway. It took our crews quite some time in order to get the runway back to a condition. We are studying those challenges. We do need to stay ahead of them so that we can ensure the airport is open the maximum time possible. Any airport will have periods where it is shut down because of weather. Of course, we want to minimize those. We do continue to look at it. It is part of the research we are doing around climate change as we are seeing more variability in the weather and more of these extreme events. We are trying to be proactive to identify those and to put in our adaptation plans required to address the needs there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Minister Ramsay.
Madam Chair, just to add to Deputy Minister Neudorf’s comments, we have had some success at the Norman Wells Airport when it comes to the surface. We had it grooved. It decreases the amount of friction. When you are talking to people in Inuvik – and it wasn’t as much of an issue last winter, it was the winter before – what would seem like a nice day, the weather wasn’t that bad, but the friction on the runway was such that planes couldn’t land and take off and it becomes a safety issue. That is something that we are monitoring closely and perhaps at some point in time we may need to look at the possibility of grooving the runway in Inuvik as well. That could be a possibility as we go forward. We are looking at those types of opportunities. We are watching what is happening in Norman Wells. According to the aviation folks I have talked to, the grooving of the runway in Norman Wells has been a big help in that regard. Thank you.
Mr. Blake has no further questions. Who is next on my list? Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I heard Mr. Moses’ discussion regarding the Inuvik Airport terminal and how it was being repaired. The contract has been put out. I know the contract has been awarded at least a couple of months ago. I am just wondering the cost of that particular contract on that repair. Let’s start with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.
Madam Chair, that was a few months back. It was around $100,000. It was through Public Works and Services that the repairs were conducted on the Inuvik terminal building. Thank you.
On that particular repair, has it been finished yet? I didn’t catch that part, the dialogue earlier, but has it been finished yet? Has the scope remained the same from the original tender?
Yes, the repairs have been concluded at the Inuvik air terminal building. Thank you.
Is there any change to the scope, as I was asking just a minute ago? Did it still remain the same? Thank you.
It would have stayed the same. It was just a repair. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have nobody else on my list. Does committee agree on page 11-17, activity summary, airports, operations expenditure summary, $28.677 million?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 11-18, activity summary, airports, grants and contributions, contributions, $30,000.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 11-19, information item, airports, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 11-21, activity summary, highways, operations expenditure summary, $67.844 million. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is a very simple one here. I hope we get a simple answer. The amortization number from 2011-12 to 2012-13 seems to be a substantial jump. Can the Minister indicate as to what exactly constituted that change in amortization calculations? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Minister.
Over the past five years the Government of the Northwest Territories has spent close to $1 billion in capital infrastructure around the territory. This is just a case of the Department of Transportation putting more assets into service around the Northwest Territories and that is why you see the increase in amortization. Thank you.
Can the Minister be more specific as to what large pieces of infrastructure that would have constituted the calculation to be that high?
