Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is not complete?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee, and thank you, Minister. SergeantatArms, please escort the witness from the Chamber.
All right. Committee, we will now consider the Legislative Assembly. Does the Speaker wish to introduce his witnesses, or will the Speaker introduce his witnesses?
Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Tim Mercer, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly. Also Brian Thagard, SergeantatArms.
Thank you. The committee has agreed to forego general comment. Has the committee agreed to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, the Legislative Assembly begins on page 7, and we'll defer the Legislative Assembly totals and review by review the estimates by activity summary beginning on page 8 with the Office of the Clerk with information items on page 9. Questions? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I notice that the additional funds here are for the installation of the pedestrian walkway adjacent to the incoming road to the Assembly. Given that the ingress and egress roads of the Assembly have some geotechnical issues, I'm wondering if the Assembly has thought of perhaps expanding this and doing an entire route way fixup in the coming year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's stage 4 of our plans but this is stage 1. Maybe I'll just turn to the SergeantatArms to give the a little more information on that. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thaggard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So yes, these funds were required to address safety concerns so we wanted to put a focus on bringing folks safely up to the Legislative Assembly from the intersection or the entranceway to the capitol site up by Highway 4. We have ongoing O and M funds that we use each year for the roadway and, as the Member's commented previously, there's there are some areas of concern with the roadway. But this project is specifically to deal with the safety of moving pedestrians around the capitol site.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm probably going to steal the Member for Hay River South's question by asking whether or not the Assembly has considered just widening the roadway to include a sidewalk versus creating a separate path. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually that'll actually cost more to widen the highway or the road because we'd have to widen it plus plus the sloping and cost for material will be a lot more, and also it's still a bit of a safety concern because you'll only see the lineage during the summer and in the winter, we'll still have that issue of safety. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions, comments? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Look, as a dedicated pedestrian/cyclist, even in the winter sometimes, I usually come in from the other end from where I live in Frame Lake. But I've had occasion to walk along that road many times. I've even complained a few times to our staff about how unsafe it is walking along there, particularly when there was construction going on in front of the Assembly when we had the water break and so on. So I do support this expenditure to make sure that we have a safe entrance for pedestrians. And I presume, though, one question, if I could, that this pathway's going to be wide enough for pedestrians and cyclists? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It'll actually be the same width of the other walkway which is roughly six feet. So it'll be the exact same. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks for that response, and yeah, I support this, as a dedicated pedestrian/cyclist. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any further questions, comments? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know in this last year we ripped up the road that kind of connects our services to the rest of this city and during that there was some engineering work about possibility of working with the museum and the Department of National Defence and RCMP and the city about some sort of district heating system. I note that that's probably now passed since we completed that work. But can I just get an update on whether that is feasible or whether that is in the future Assembly capital plan? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just maybe turn this to SergeantatArms. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Thagard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So a number of years ago when we were looking at that district heating program that the city was proposing, I believe the Department of Infrastructure did a feasibility study for the Legislative Assembly and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre because of them being removed from from where the location was considered uptown. And it turned out it wasn't feasible to address that with the building and in fact, I think, based on that, I believe that that the initial project has been has not got any traction and moved forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I have some reservations about this line item. You know, on one hand I am a huge fan of pedestrian infrastructure, and I think the more we can do to encourage people to walk and cycle the better. On the other hand, I this is, you know, a few hundred meters of trail for $400,000. I'm struggling to see it as a bit of a priority. I'd like to hear from the Speaker about is this just the reality of what a trail costs to construct these days, $400,000, or do we have some reasoning how we got to such a high number? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to break it down,
The materials alone is $75,000;
Installation is another $75,000;
Tree removal is $40,000;
Signage, $15,000;
Contingency, I want to say, $41,000;
Design is $35,000; and,
GC 20 percent, $49,000.
So that's our breakdown of the costs.
The other thing we have to look at is, you know, let's say if something happened to a pedestrian, then the lawsuits that we could foresee would be probably in the same area. So that's something we're trying to limit. And so I just thought I'd add that thinking. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any further questions, comments? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So if I'm understanding correctly, this project is basically for safety reasons, is that right? Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Madam Chair, that is correct.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess, you know, it is $400,000 and I would ask if there was any consideration, you know, to using signage that says, you know, this isn't no pedestrian, you know, foot traffic allowed on that road and direct them to the new or redone path there that's over to the west. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Maybe I'll just turn this to SergeantatArms. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thagard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we've included funds for signage to direct folks to the pathway and off the roadway. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess what I was getting at was that was instead of building a new pathway is to direct them to the existing pathway on that side. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Since the installation of the pedestrian walkway from the main entrance for the capitol area Highway 4, the Legislative Assembly started planning since then to make an adjacent trail that maybe the SergeantatArms wants to add anything. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Thagard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the safety issue was exacerbated by the crosswalk that was put in because of the development across Highway 4. So it was created to address the safety concern of people crossing the highway to get over to the site, the capitol area, the roadway system for the Legislative Assembly and the museum. However, all it did was bring people over from it addressed one safety concern, and then it created another one. So we bring them across the roadway safely, get them onto the capitol area site, and then we are still putting them on a roadway, moving them around the site on a roadway, which was not ideal. I mean, so we're just kind of now addressing that secondary concern that has resulted because of that. So signage directing them to the existing trail system is certainly an option. It would take them a long way around and they'd have to make their way down and around to connect with that trail and then make their way up to the Legislative Assembly.
We've noticed over the years that people generally will take the shortest route possible to get where they're going. So nine times out of ten, they're not going to go that way. In our experience, they're just going to come up that roadway as they are now. And of course, in the winter time that safety concern gets even worse with the accumulation of snow on the side of the roads, it gets a little bit narrower, and it's just a concern that we'd like to address to bring people to the building safely. Thank you, Madam Chair.
