Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve talked about the Sahtu region and I want to follow up, and it’s in regard to the hopes and aspirations and visions of the Sahtu people. I want to ask questions to the Minister of Transportation in regard to doing the small steps for our region to look at, hopefully, one day becoming a stand-alone, breakaway region.
I want to ask the Minister of Transportation, given that we have a winter road and the airport is operating out of Inuvik and the winter road is operating out of Simpson, can the Minister look within his department to see if there is any way of creating some programs and positions within the department to move some of these authorities into the region out of the other regions?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The department has reviewed the possibility of placing a regional office in the Sahtu. However, at this time, at the point of the last review it was determined that considering that there were not a lot of positions at airports that it was most feasible economically to keep that under the regional office in Inuvik and that there was no all-season road/highway activity in Norman Wells. The winter road season was only, well, as long as winter is, a couple of months, three months in some seasons, so we thought that it would be better to continue out of Simpson at this time.
However, as I indicated, we are starting to do reviews and we were very hopeful when we were finally moving to a point where there was a federal pot put aside where we could apply to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Because we’re sure that once that highway is built that we will have a regional presence in the Sahtu.
The Minister is well aware of the Sahtu’s aspirations, and with the Mackenzie Valley Highway we’re hoping that we have some good news out of the federal government’s office. Also, the Sahtu, specifically the Tulita leadership, district leadership put a proposal in front of this Minister to look at a small proposal.
Would this small proposal be sort of an indication to say we need to get ready for the Mackenzie Valley Highway? Can you move towards creating the positions in the Sahtu with Transportation with the support of the proposal that’s in front of the Minister’s desk now?
We had received one proposal for sure going from Norman Wells south and also we have to discuss another proposal in Tulita going south again. Then there’s also another proposal for Fort Good Hope also heading south, so sort of on the Good Hope… With the exception of the Good Hope line, everything else would be on the Mackenzie Valley alignment. If we do fund those, it would be a substantial amount of summer work for sure, but right now we’re not in a position to fund any of those proposals. We’re looking at them and we’re talking with the federal government about the possibility of maybe funding those proposals as well. Thank you.
The department has a proposal that’s written with substantial numbers on there. It’s in front of the Minister. The two other ones the Minister talked about are from Tulita and Fort Good Hope. It’s a concept idea and they are hoping that their proposals will be on their way.
I’m asking the Minister, given that we have one substantial proposal from Norman Wells south on the Mackenzie Valley Highway to start preparing for the Mackenzie Valley Highway – it is coming – given this, hoping we get favourable responses to create a position in the Sahtu, that would be a start of having a regional office come into the Sahtu. That’s what we’re asking for.
If the proposal that the Member speaks of, the Canyon Creek proposal, that is to bring the very first access to gravel for the beginning of the Mackenzie Valley Highway coming from the north south, so if that does get funded – it is a substantive proposal – that would certainly be work enough in the Sahtu for a position to be in the Sahtu. However, at this time there is a little bit of planning money that’s been approved to start looking at that, and that’s a positive sign, but at this time we don’t have approval for the whole proposal. It would be kind of hypothetical for me to commit to putting a position in Norman Wells at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s discouraging to hear that from the government. It’s no different than me fighting for the residential school survivors to get some decent treatment in the North or for them.
We are penalized because we don’t have an all-weather road. When we did have heavy equipment going with the oil and gas, there was lots of activity, yet we’re still not having any type of support from this department or this government. I am asking if the department could think outside the box; create a position, even if it’s temporary. Don’t shut the door in our face and say no, not until you get an all-weather road. This is not fair. It’s against our region and we are looking at something that would look at having some authority in the Sahtu region with transportation. That’s what we’re asking this government for and right now we’re hearing no. That’s discouraging.
I will ask the Minister again if he would consider it, look at it to see if there’s a possibility of taking advantage of this position and create a superintendent position in the Sahtu region. We want to have the decency and authority to look after things in our own region. Why do we have to call outside the region to do things inside the Sahtu region? It’s ludicrous. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. The positions that are in Norman Wells are positions at the airport and airport operations. We could go back to the department, look at the airport operations. Right now, as the Member indicated, the individuals in Norman Wells report to the Inuvik office. So, if we looked at the reporting relationship from the airport in Norman Wells reporting to the airport division here in Yellowknife, if that’s the simple change that could be made without losing any efficiencies, we’ll look at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
