I will try this again. Sambaa K'e winter road. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We make sure that all winter roads are safe for travel for the general public. There have been a number of initiatives done on this road in the last five years. If we go back to our stats, we spent roughly $1.6 million on the Sambaa K'e road in the last five years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. In this section of road, there is a hill that the community has been trying to renovate or fix up in the last year or so. What has the department been doing with the community to address this issue? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As far as I am aware, the community has never approached us about this issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually I did send an e-mail, but maybe I will have to pull that out. The community has brought it to my attention. I did forward it from the development corporation and they have asked for work to be done on this section of road. I am trying to get that message out there to the department to work with it.
It is a safety factor. Just recently, they had six elders or six individuals being shipped to Fort Simpson for medical appointments and they got stuck there for six hours. This is the section of road that they are talking about. Can the Minister look into this with the department, and then maybe I will look into my files as well and bring this e-mail forward again? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I ask the Member if he can send that e-mail again to me. We will double check and make sure that we never got it, but we don't recall anything. We will bring that concern forward. We will have a look at it. One of the things we can consider, depending on the issue, and we have a look at it with the Member or the community, there is a possibility we have money in the Highway Safety Improvement Capital Fund that we can look at maybe doing something on that road. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the answer to the Minister. I will make that commitment that I will make sure that I get that letter to you guys. I will have to phone my office there because I got a response back from the department saying that it was going to be looked at and that was -- again I apologize, but I will make sure that we get this e-mail forwarded and I appreciate the Minister's commitment to look into it and work with the community to address this issue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Next, I have Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand that in 2015-16 the Department of Transportation or DOT had developed a transportation model strategy. I wanted to understand what perhaps could have been included in terms of the long-term plans for community airports, especially small communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will turn that over to Deputy of Transportation, Mr. Neudorf. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did release our updated transportation strategy about a year and a half or so ago. It talks about various priorities. The first priority would be to continue to maintain and look at the existing infrastructure that we have. In terms of community airports, for the most part, the infrastructure at the airports does serve the needs of the various communities.
From time to time, we request for air terminal upgrading, for example, so we are working on a plan for Inuvik ATV now. We recently upgraded terminals in Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, and Tuktoyaktuk. Another thing that occurs from time to time is the need to relocate an airport because the community is starting to infringe on an airport, so in the past few years, five years or so, we have relocated Trout Lake airport and the airport in Colville Lake.
We will continue to monitor needs in all of our airports and community airports, and address the needs as they come up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have noticed recently in the community of Fort Providence that there have been some activities in terms of brushing, especially at the treetops. I understand, in that instance, it was done because of the priority of navigation equipment allowing the air traffic to safely land in the airport. What is the extend of the involvement in this department, and how were those decisions made to go ahead and create a project like that? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Neudorf.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those decisions are made by the department. We need to ensure that all of our airports are operated in accordance with the regulations. Transport Canada regulates airport operations, and I am sure that we work underneath the rules that they provide; one of which is to maintain obstacle limitation surfaces, they are called.
We have to have clear airspace for takeoff and landing related to aircraft. One of the things, obviously, trees can grow into that airspace. We do survey at airports from time to time, and if required, we will go in and harvest or cut down trees to make sure that we can continue to operate the airport safely. We have recently done that with Fort Providence. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It seems that the department, as part of their operations, is ensuring the safety and the access to small community airports. I just wanted to make a point, Mr. Chair: there is a presumption that there is a Community Access Program that is specifically for roads only. In this instance, a project of this nature that could affect airports, would perhaps the Community Access Program be expanded to include airports? Perhaps the Minister maybe could reply in terms of the idea to ensure that it is not only roads but airports included in the initiative. Perhaps there had been maybe, historically, projects to include airports access. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The airport operations, the brushing, gravel resurfacing, maintaining air terminal buildings, various electrical lighting upgrades, O and M activities, are all funded from the airport operations line item. We have an acceptable level of funding there. Obviously, you have to operate these airports safely, and so we always prioritize the funding. We have a four-scope process in order to deal with any issues where funding might start to become deficient. All of our airports, the operations in the airport are well-funded. We are not looking at this time at taking some of the Community Access Program funding and allocating for airports. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just have a few questions for the Minister. Under Marine Operations, I see the reduction for the $1.8 million which was to operate both the Peel River and Mackenzie River ferry at Tsiigehtchic. Was this reduction for cost-saving measures? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it was. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, during our briefings, the Minister was planning to make this reduction and actually put it in the highway operations. Is that actually what happened? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We put this as a savings moving forward, but we want to look at using some of this money for the savings for ice bridge accelerations, so some of the money would be spent there; and then, the remainder of the money would be looked at spending on O and M moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is really, actually, not a cost-saving measure. It is just you are shuffling around these funds into other departments. Really, you are not saving any money. You are just moving it to highway operations and winter roads. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are following a process. We are asked to come with some reductions, and this is one of the ones that we thought warranted bringing forward. As I have said in the House many times, we did a cost-benefit analysis on this, and we believe that doing this is outweighing the benefits. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Outweighing the benefits for who? If you ask the people up in the Beaufort Delta, they are the ones benefitting from it. Now, other highway operations or winter roads, who is going to benefitting from of this now? That is the clear fact, and it is a shame that you have to cut one department to add a little more to a couple of different departments. It is pretty clear that that is what is happening. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister, would you like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member is well aware, this issue was put in place to help offset the concerns around Ikhil, Norman Wells, and Inuvik. We believe that moving forward, as the Member has alluded to in his comments in the House there, that we have learned how to operate this thing efficiently. The other thing that we have done at the same time is gather information, and we do not see that it warrants having this in place.
We believe that the accelerated ice road could be done with limited disruption, as the ferry was closed 40 per cent of the time, as I have said a number of times due to the weather factors. There are a number of things that have come to make this decision for us to bring this forward, and we believe it is the right one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know a lot of the information that the department is using is from a couple of years back. This 40 per cent closure he is referring to, I know in my discussions in the House, that was highway closures is what he is referring to. That might have been a couple of years back, but this year, it was very limited. Like I said, if you take the numbers that were used on the ferry this year, we have had in the neighbourhood of 200 tractor trailers, if not more. In the month of November alone, we had over 120. The reason I know this is because I communicate pretty well with the people who work on this ferry. I was given pretty accurate numbers. It is a shame that we have to cut the service. That is not to mention all the public traffic that was using this. There are a lot of tourists, and a lot of my residents and residents from Inuvik as well who made use of this ferry operation. It is a real shame that we have to cut this department, just to give more to a couple of different departments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said before, I don't want to get into a big debate with Members on some of these initiatives that we have had on the floor already. This is something that was put in place to help mitigate the offset of the keel well. We believe that there are measures put in place to remedy that, to make sure the residence of Inuvik have an ample supply of liquefied natural gas and propane. We do not believe that pulling this winter ferry service, along with accelerating the ice bridge, will affect any of those things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Mr. Blake.
