Thank you, Madam Chair. We’ve completed a report on the governance of the Yellowknife Airport, and we now have a consultant looking at that and looking at the options. Most likely, if there’s going to be privatization or a change in the way the governance at the Yellowknife Airport occurs, then it will probably be something that would be decided at the next Assembly.
Not being on a committee that has this department as part of their mandate, I would like to ask the Minister if the report that he referenced is public. Has it gone to committee yet and/or has it gone to the public? Thank you.
The report has not gone to committee, but the report is on the website.
Perhaps I could get the name of that report so I would know what to look for. To the Minister, I’m a little surprised that we have a report with recommendations and now we have a consultant who is evaluating those recommendations. So, maybe I could get an explanation as to why we can’t just take the recommendations from the report and internally decide on where we want to go.
We can send the report to committee or any of the Members that wish to review the report. The report is mostly a report on what the current situation is. It’s not something that is, in the sense, something we could do something with as far as the governance goes. So, what we’re doing is we’re asking a consultant to look at the report and put it in terms where we can look at and determine whether or not it would be something that would be feasible to move forward with.
I think that’s good. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Okay. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Airports, operations expenditure summary, $27.811 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one question on this page. I note a reduction of about 35 percent in facilities budget between the previous couple of years and this year. I’m just wondering if there’s a ready explanation for that decrease. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The main reason for the decrease is that there’s a sunset there. We had got one-time funding for the Inuvik runway dip repairs and so that money is sunsetting. It’s a decrease of $2.35 million. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Questions on this page, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. In my opening comments I spoke about the operating and maintenance of the new Trout Lake Airport and the need for snow removal equipment, and that’s something that would certainly benefit them. It’s a much larger airport and the community indicates that having a grader is just not going to work, as you can see, with the larger volumes of snow that can happen on a much larger surface. I would just like they ask about a snow blower to be put in the plans for the community of Trout Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I had indicated earlier that we were going to take a look at how things worked with the current equipment for one season with what equipment was in place, and if it appeared to be very difficult for the community to manage, keeping the airstrip cleared with the current equipment, then the snow blower would be a capital item or an item that maybe they could work with the rest of the community to determine whether or not that would be high up on the community’s capital list as well.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. That’s good news. Mr. Menicoche, any more questions? No? Okay. Thank you.
Airports, operations expenditure summary, $27.811 million.
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. Page 454, airports, grants, contributions and transfers, contributions $20,000.
Agreed.
Agreed. Airports, active positions, information item.
Agreed.
Thank you. Community Access Program, operations expenditure summary, $1.008 million.
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. Page 458, Community Access Program, grants, contributions and transfers, contributions $980,000.
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. Corporate services, operations expenditure summary, $10.965 million. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I have a question here with regards to the Transportation Strategy 2015-2040. The Minister talked about it the other day in a Minister’s statement. This strategy seems to have been being developed for quite some time and I gather we’ve now done consultation, and that’s a good thing. According to the Minister’s statement, our next step is to prepare a draft of the Transportation Strategy and then go back out and visit each region of the NWT in the spring of 2015 to discuss the draft strategy with residents and stakeholders. So, that’s great, lots of consultation. I do like to hear that, but I’d like to know from the Minister when we can expect to see not a “what we heard document,” which is what he tabled the other day, but when are we going to see the actual strategy itself in terms of transportation and the road strategy? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The strategy is intended to run from this year, 2015, probably this summer, in around that time. I guess, essentially the strategy is being done in 25 year blocks, NWT Transportation Strategy, so from 1990 to 2015, which is just beginning to end now. But in essence, a strategy does not expire, so if we don’t have the next strategy fully developed, we would just continue with the strategy. But the intention, the plan, I guess, is to complete a strategy every 25 years and look at all of the various modes of transportation that we have in the territory, being highways, winter roads, marines, airports. That’s what the intention is, so we hope that after we were able to take the strategy out on the road that we would have one complete strategy.
My question was when. I heard lots of info in there, but when will this strategy be complete?
We will table the actual strategy for the spring session.
That’s good. Thank you.
Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I also want to follow up on the Green Light, I believe it was called, environmental strategy for the department. Are we expecting an update on that strategy or that process and an evaluation of how well we’re doing?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For more detail, I’d ask the deputy minister to provide a response.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Green Light is our Department of Transportation environmental strategy. It has a number of different actions that are proposed underneath it. We released it about five years ago, and those actions continue. It is another one of the background documents that’s also feeding into our Transportation Strategy update that we’re working on right now. Our efforts on the strategy are focused on the main document, our update, which we will table in the May/June session. Following that, we’ll see what direction is provided as part of that and consider updating any of the sub-strategies underneath that, including that Green Light environmental management strategy.
I would note that are, as I indicated, a number of activities that are still going on with that, and this year we’ve got a low focus on our environmental management systems to try to improve the way that the various aspects around the regulatory environment and our environmental activities are being undertaken.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Bromley.
Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the deputy minister for that. I’m wondering: is there an evaluation program in place for that and can the Minister commit to getting committee an update on that? I believe the deputy minister said it had been in place for five years. It seems due for a good review.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We don’t have an evaluation program per se, but we can give an update on the plan.
I’ll leave it at that. I think it’s always good, as the Auditor General continually reminds us, to have an evaluation program in place when we start new programs like this. I would have thought there would have been one and I hope the department will address that. For now, I appreciate the Minister’s commitment.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Corporate services, operations expenditure summary, $10.965 million.
Agreed.
Page 462, corporate services, grants, contributions and transfers, contributions, $12,000.
Agreed.
Corporate services, active positions, information item.
Agreed.
Page 465, highways, operations expenditure summary, $66.420 million. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I know that with Highway No. 7 there was previously capital amounts, but I would just like to know, in terms of operations and maintenance, what expenditures they have planned for Highway No. 7.
