Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
I've got some other questions, but that will probably be in page 417. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. And just for the, I guess, clarity in Hansard and for the ease of the tech, people, audio techs, if you have no more questions, just state it when the red light comes on. Thank you to all the Members. Do we have comments or questions on page 419, highways, active positions? Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to headquarters, the 26 positions, I've asked this question previously and I still haven't seen the information. How many engineers do we have within this department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We thought we provided this to the Member but we'll make sure we get back to him if he hasn't got it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister saying he's going to be back to me with it because I still haven't got it. So I'm just wondering in regards to the engineer's position, is there dual roles or do we need an engineer to check culverts and that's all they do and engineers check the highways. Do they have dual responsibilities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minster.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer that to the Deputy Minister Neudorf.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of our positions have job descriptions with them that would layout the duties associated with it. Along with that job description it would talk about the requirements to be qualified for the job, some of which would obviously require a professional engineering designation. And the positions would tend to be specialized, so for example we have people in our bridge section, structure section, that are bridge engineers and are specialized in that, engineers in our highway reconstruction section, specialized in highway reconstruction. So that as a profession you get additional experience in your profession, you obviously will build up experience in that profession and we'll, you know, rely on that expertise to help manage our infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for his answer. I'm just trying to understand if you have two people why you need to send two people that look after culverts and they're in the vehicles and going down together. Is there a rationale for it? Could the deputy minister or Minister explain the rationale for having you know two staff to go check culverts? Is it a safety issue or is it an engineering requirement? It's just something that has been brought to my attention numerous times by other people in the communities seeing vehicles going there with two people and they're engineers checking, you know, signs and culverts where other engineers go down the road, so I got the first answer, but now the second one would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer it to Deputy Minister Neudorf. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no special requirement for engineers to always have a buddy, but it would depend on the particular circumstances, situation. A lot of times it is a safer situation if there are two individuals in the vehicle driving long distances. Sometimes the requirements of the job will take two people as well if you're out inspection or doing a job. There is no special requirement that there has to be two people. It's just the way it would work out and I'm sure that there are many times that we would send one person out in a vehicle as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That’s my questions for this page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my riding there's at least two communities that have a highway maintenance camp and there's been a pullback of resources from the communities. I just wanted to get an understanding in terms of the scope of regionalization effort whether this is temporary or this is reposition of resources so that at least you have key personnel on the ground serving smaller communities from regions. So could the Minister provide an explanation in terms of the scope of regionalization of the highways and operations? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer to Deputy Minister Neudorf.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of our operations, airports, and highways are regionalized, so we have camps located throughout the NWT and communities that take care of our operations. That's the way we've been doing it since DOT was created and since the infrastructure was devolved from the federal government in the '80s. So there's been no change in that. In fact, over the years as we've had the opportunities to identify needs and address those needs, the growth that has been in transportation has been in the regional operations to deal with the incremental challenges that come from changing climate, increasing traffic, those types of things. In terms of the numbers here, there is a net reduction of five positions here. Those are all related to a reduction initiative that we have and in the South Slave so in Hay River and Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it's good to know that the new changes have been taking place in terms of the operations of the highways, some operations and it's encouraging that once again I've heard the word forever, which is good. The other point that I wanted to make and to seek some clarification: is this in terms of the pullback of Enterprise in terms of whether that's temporary in terms of maybe decommissioning the operations there and getting service from Hay River. Can I get some clarification on that? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
I'll let ADM Jayleen Robertson answer that.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Robertson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are transitioning the Enterprise highway maintenance crew to work out of the Hay River facility right now. As the Member is aware, we have not been using that facility for quite a while now due to some issues with the building. What we found is that the crew is working out of the Hay River camp actually provide better service to the high traffic area of Highway No. 2 as they can actually leave and start doing the road maintenance right from the facility in Hay River. Highway No. 2, the heaviest traffic area there is getting ploughed sooner and faster and in time for the early morning commute. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Robertson. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, my final question is just to more -- likely I've heard it in a roundabout way, but since the operation of Deh Cho Bridge coming into stream about three years ago, has there been perhaps just an evaluation in terms of the number of traffic that goes down the highway between, say, Enterprise and Yellowknife and if there's been notable identification of the need to provide more services just to maintain the roads say during the wintertime versus the summertime. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer that to Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the Deh Cho Bridge came into operation, we did look at the O and M, additional O and M requirements, and address them at that time and most of the additional requirements were actually on the bridge itself. In terms of the incremental traffic, there has not been a significant increase in traffic, particularly related to the Deh Cho Bridge. Obviously the traffic pattern has changed a little bit because you can now use that highway 365 days of the year and 24 hours a day. We had, I would say -- about five to seven years ago, we actually went through a process to get additional money to look at winter operations and we expanded the winter operations from. It was 40 hours a week to 84 hours a week, so 12 hours a day, seven days a week O and M coverage on that highway in the wintertime to deal with weather events, be able to respond to that type of thing quickly. So we're pleased with that. That type of service is performing quite well and it's meeting the demands of our users right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Next on my list, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple questions on winter roads. You know a couple years back some of you may recall there were plans to open up the road from Inuvik to Norman Wells going up the highway there, so people could have a chance to travel, you know, down the valley here. It kind of fell off the books there a couple years back but you know it's a great idea. You know how many times in this House I said the amount of money that’s being spent in the Yukon, you know, it's a shame that we don’t open this stretch of road up. You know, you'll see a lot more spending whether it's trucks from Hay River or boats, whatnot, you know. You'd see a lot more money being spent here in the NWT I feel. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister, would you like to comment?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That would be an interesting to be able to do that, but in light of the fiscal situation we're in and to justify spending that kind of money and the challenges we have right now would probably be tough to accomplish. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It shouldn't cost that much extra. People are already using that stretch out on the fibre optic line. It is a shame the department is not really looking into that. It could do so much for this territory.
Also, on another note, we are on highways here, so I note, I think, it was in 2008, it was supposed to come out on contract to change the culverts, I think it is Kilometre 145 just near Tsiigehtchic there as you climb the hill. It never did come out to tender or negotiate. I know that stretch of highway is up next for the widening, so what are the plans for the department? Those culverts do need to be worked on. What is the overall plan? Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first part is the road that takes time to open, the winter road, that would be roughly a ten to $20 million one-time hit to open up that section of the winter road from Norman Wells to Tsiigehtchic. It would probably add approximately $2 million to the O and M winter road budget. So that is the fiscal reality of it. We would love to do it, but we would have to find that money somewhere. As for the culvert question, I will default that to deputy minister Neudorf. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have quite an extensive major culvert and bridge management program. We send engineers out onto the highway and inspect our culverts and our bridges every year and feed that information into our management system, so we can track the condition of all of our culverts and come up with an appropriate maintenance and an appropriate replacement program. That has resulted in an increase actually of the amount of money that we have to repair, rehabilitate, bridges and culverts. It is not a capital item, but bridges and culverts, we now have $6 million a year to rehabilitate that infrastructure. So we do have our inventory system -- kicks out when major culverts, in particular, are in need of repair.
I know there is a culvert on Highway No. 8, kilometre 147, that is likely the same culvert that the Member is referring to. It is on our list of projects that we are monitoring closely. If some more significant issues arise, then we will put it on the priority list for replacement. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
