Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two people here. They are here from Ottawa. They are Nick Gregg, or little Nick as we call him at camp, and Rebecca Bisson. I thank them very much. They are from Northern Youth Abroad.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my constituent Nalini Naidoo. It is through the generosity of the Naidoo family, the MS Naidoo Foundation that helps to support the Northern Youth Abroad program.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River South.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Nia Mckenzie-Steinwand, one of the Pages from Hay River South, and thank you for your great work this week, Nia.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the interpreters who we have in the House from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh; Mr. Tommy Unka from Fort Resolution and Maro Sundberg from Detah. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I would like to recognize my wife, Anne, in the gallery today. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a Page from Hay River North who has been here all week, Shayla Moore. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the youth members of the Youth Abroad program and their supervisors. Mahsi.
Mahsi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize Lois Philipp of Fort Providence, who has been very instrumental in getting students to get involved with Northern Youth Abroad, so I would just like to welcome her. Mahsi.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the Northern Youth Abroad staff and alumni, and thank them for joining us here today, and the great work that they do, and the great partnership that they have with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Jessica Andre, one of my constituents who took part in the Northern Youth Abroad, and also the two Pages Thomas Norbert and Shaylene Shae. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure. As I said in my statement, the condition of Highway No. 3 from Behchoko to Yellowknife is a problem for residents, freight trucks, and tourists alike. This road has four times the traffic of any other highway in the NWT. My question for the Minister is: why doesn't the maintenance budget match the heavy use of this road? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe our maintenance budget is sufficient to maintain the road for particularly the wintertime. I think the issue around Highway No. 3 between here and Behchoko is the infrastructure deficit that's out there because of permafrost degradation, and the department is working to address that as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Let's call it an infrastructure deficit. The question is still: what are you going to do about it?
The department received $18 million under the Building Canada Plan to address this section of road, and we will continue to spend that until that is exhausted and then we can find external funds to continue on working on that road.
Mr. Speaker, $18 million sounds like a lot of money, but in the context of the department's whole budget, it isn't. The fact is that the department is committed to providing a safe operating surface, and that's not what we have. Can the Minister give us an estimate of what it would actually cost to provide a safe operating surface from Yellowknife to Behchoko?
We already provide a safe operating surface if you drive to the speed limit that is posted on the highway. It is a posted speed limit that makes it safe to commute on that section of highway, and we will continue to monitor the situation going forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation won't build additional housing without additional operations and maintenance money. Has the Department of Infrastructure considered this approach? What is the point of pouring money into new roads like the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway and the Whati road where there obviously isn't enough money for maintenance? Mahsi.
When we put these proposals forward, it's the mandate of this Legislative Assembly what we bring forward. We have three sections of highway that are put forward for infrastructure; the Whati Road, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Slave Geological Road. That is not a decision that I've made on my own; that is a decision that all Members in this Assembly have addressed to bring forward as a commitment of this Assembly, and we will work within those parameters and try to figure out where the money can come from to build these roads. That's what I've set out to do in my mandate, and I will continue to do that, and we will work within those parameters.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is now the proud owner of a fleet of marine transportation vessels. As I spoke of earlier in my statement, they're named after people who aren't necessarily reflective of the entire Northwest Territories. My one question to the Premier is: would you be onboard with helping solicit stories from the communities and nominations of names so that we can rename these vessels to better reflect the entirety of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The renaming of MTS vessels to better reflect the Northwest Territories' long history of marine shipping is a very good idea, worth pursuing; however, we have to be respectful of some of the existing names on existing vessels and the reasons behind them. Also, we have to confirm what vessels we will be keeping in the long term, and would only consider renaming vessels in our core fleet.
I have since directed staff of Executive and Indigenous Affairs and Infrastructure to start drafting some guidelines about naming and a process for soliciting nominations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand there are a lot of technical issues, they don't know what ships they're keeping yet and all that kind of stuff, but it's great to hear that the Premier is moving forward with a way to solicit nominations, and I'll be letting my constituents know to start getting their stories ready. Does the Premier have a timeline of when we can expect either this process to begin or the names to change?
We will be developing a process for renaming these vessels and will bring forward proposed names for the Executive Council's consideration.
There are some other considerations; for example, in the guidelines for naming of government buildings, we require that it not be named after living persons and other considerations, so those kinds of things have to be developed. I expect that, in the very near future, probably within a couple of months, we would be able to develop a process.
Since this is the government's first foray into naming vessels, I hope that they look at different ways of doing it and don't just transfer the rules from naming buildings to vessels. I know that in Hay River, for example, we have a family, the Loutits, where they have son, father, grandfather; they're all legendary river pilots, so to have an SS Loutit would be to name after it after a family, so it would be a little different. I think we should be open to that. Will the government look at being open to different ways of naming and not just transferring the system from buildings to the marine vessels?
We're very open to looking at different ways, as long as we stick to the original intention of naming vessels to help recognize the long history of marine shipping.
One name that comes to mind when I look in the United Kingdom or in England where they had a competition to name a sea-going vessel and they came up with a name like Boaty McBoatface, or something like that. I think we want to make sure we have a process that we come up with names that recognize the long marine history in the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. Can the Minister explain the Housing Corporation's rationale for halting construction on the nine-plex building in Fort McPherson? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The nine-plex in Fort McPherson was an interesting process, actually. We did have a contractor originally scheduled to complete it. There were some issues. We had to dissolve that contract. Then I entered into a negotiated contract with a local company, which fit the true definition of negotiated contracts in that it was about building capacity for the contractor and providing in the community, so we were really eager to actually begin that process.
The difficulty was that, in trying to do that negotiated contract, the contractor actually came back at more than double the projected budget that we expected it to be, so part of the negotiations to bring that price down was to look at cost-saving measures.
The contractor stated that it would be more expensive to actually have to build in the winter because of the additional costs, the additional costs to heat, power, et cetera, and so it was a negotiation that we would actually agree that they could stop the process during the winter months to actually be able to come closer to what we projected the budget should be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is a problem that we constantly run into, having contractors underbid projects. Mr. Speaker, it's not the fault of the new contractor that just took on this project here, the reason being that the first contractor underbid this project by quite a lot. I would like to ask the Minister: when does the Housing Corporation expect that the Fort McPherson nine-plex will now be completed and opened to residents?
As stated, the projected budget that the Housing Corporation had estimated for the construction of that building was not based on a low bid. It was actually based on a cost analysis that is done for a building within each community that takes that into account. We are hoping that the building will start up again in April and that it will be done as soon as the contractor can do that. However, if the contractor wishes to build over the winter and can promise me that he will be able to do that contract within the negotiated contract price, then I am willing to allow the contractor to move forward.
That probably would have been possible if the department actually gave the contractor the price they were initially trying to get, which included all the costs for working through the winter months, but I will leave that there. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give me other examples of when the Housing Corporation stopped construction through the winter months?
As stated earlier, this is an exceptional agreement that we made. This was a negotiated contract. We do set budget amounts when we put buildings out to tender. If we had gone with the normal contract procurement process where the bids are open to the public, then we would expect that the bids would have come in at a more reasonable figure, closer to our projected budget. We did make the exceptions because of the negotiated contract, and so therefore, because of the great discrepancy between the estimated amount and the amount brought forward to us, we had to look at ways that we could actually bring it in. I have 2,400 public housing units, 200 market housing units. I cannot go more than double the budget for any one complex, and expect to address the core need that we experience within the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
