Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being anti-bullying day, I thought I’d try to twist my questions into questions to the Minister of Transportation in the Sahtu. Our roads are rough, rough and rough. We have 1,444 kilometres of winter roads. That’s leading from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake and to Deline.
I want to ask the Minister, given his recent awareness of our winter roads, especially from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope, and the annual hand game tournament this weekend in Fort Good Hope, what is the Minister doing to fix the potholes, to fix washboard alley? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was fortunate to read the letter that was written by one of the members from the Sahtu, indicating how bad the road was and so on. We had not anticipated that the roads were that bad. We thought they would be improving.
When the Member and I drove on it, it was very early and it was rough, but the department considered that it would be improving. We recognize that we do need more money to continue to improve the winter road and that we need more money for watering and more grading cycles to be able to smooth out that road.
At this time we have a contract in place and the contractor is fulfilling their obligation. However, sometimes when we have a particularly rough winter road, it’s difficult for the contractor to keep the road as smooth as we’d like it. Thank you.
For example, from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope is 147 kilometres. It is taking people four and a half to five hours to drive that section at 20 kilometres an hour. Compare that to other highways in the Northwest Territories, it’s ludicrous. You would not stand for it.
What is the Minister doing to either increase the maintenance or start the Arctic paving program and putting water on our roads so that our vehicles do not rattle apart and are not held by duct tape to get on the Sahtu winter roads?
Each year as we do the winter roads in all the areas, as we do in Sahtu, we have winter road teams. After the indication from the Member that the roads were particularly rough going into Fort Good Hope, we’ve deployed a winter road team. They’re looking at the worst spots, and we’re going to put some water on the worst spots and we’re going to grade it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, for the Minister’s information, there are a lot of “worst spots” on the winter road. We also have people who are servicing the Sahtu. We have a fuel company from Hay River, Bassett Petroleum, starting to haul fuel into the Sahtu. Their operators have given a list of situations on the winter road.
From the observations of Bassett Petroleum who have been on the winter road because they’re doing the fuel haul to Deline and the other communities, is the Minister taking their comments to heart to look at areas that they’ve indicated that need some tender loving care?
As the Member knows, we’re very approachable; the department is approachable. When we get information from Members, we do try to attend to the areas that are in the worst condition. We know that we don’t have the money to improve every section of that road to what the members of Sahtu would like to see; however, we’re addressing the worst areas.
As I indicated, we’re approachable and we do want to fix the roads to the best of our ability with the money that we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our winter roads can only last for three months and then they close down. I want to ask the Minister, given his assessment and the questions that we’ve been exchanging today and looking at this on a going-forward basis, can the Minister commit that next year we can have some type of pre-meeting with all the communities, contractors and operators and look at our winter roads and have a thorough discussion? We are still dealing with these issues from the past and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better, especially now that we don’t have additional funding from industry to put on our winter roads.
I will commit to having preconstruction meetings once the contractors for the winter road are selected next year in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
