Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The residents of Nahendeh have been asking the Department of Transportation to consider moving from a 16-hour day to an 18-hour day, which means opening up the Lafferty Ferry at the Liard crossing from 6:00 a.m. until midnight. We were very pleased that we almost had a trial period this fall, but unfortunately the residents didn’t like the two-hour break which is prime time for traveling back home and would have created some other headaches. Since that time, I have spoken with the Minister to review how the Providence work was being done for an 18-hour day. I don’t know if the Minister has had time to review how they would be able to operate from 6:00 a.m. to midnight as opposed to 8:00 a.m. to midnight that is currently happening with the Lafferty Ferry. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point I’ve only had the opportunity to review the situation in Fort Simpson. We’ve tried to do a trial, as the Member indicates; however, we found that the two-hour break in the centre was a considerable change to the businesses in Fort Simpson. At this point we were trying to operate the ferry within the time that we have been operating the ferry at the current costs allocated to the ferry and expansion of the hours. An increase in the hours to the ferry in Fort Liard would add substantial cost to the ferry operation, most likely meaning that we would have to add a complete crew. So, right now the ferry operates with a certain number of crew and to increase hours would mean that we would have to have a complete crew because of the regulations that determine how long individuals can stay on the ferry for one shift. Thank you.
Certainly that’s the kind of information I had asked the Minister to provide, so I don’t know if he can provide me with those facts, the actual costs between the 16-hour day versus an 18-hour day. Because the head residents are saying, well, they ran that way at the Providence ferry, why can’t they run it here at the Liard crossing at Fort Simpson? So, a good comparison will let us look at those figures and see what it would take to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m prepared to have the department provide the cost of increasing the ferry that crosses the Liard to 18 hours to see what has to occur, what regulations we have to look at. I’m pretty sure that if we do, I think that regulation only monitors the amount of crews that we currently have. So, if we added a crew it should be well within regulation, so the issue would be costs. So, I’m prepared to provide that information to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That would be nice to get that kind of documentation as soon as we can. Can the Minister commit to that? Thank you.
I will endeavour to get that information to the Member as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Yakeleya.
