Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Infrastructure about dredging the port of Hay River. I believe it was back in 2016 he said that we might begin dredging in 2017, and it was in 2017 that dredging hadn't begun, but there had been military aircraft taking pictures. There was Coast Guard doing ultrasonic sounding. There were working groups. Now it is 2018, and we are getting close to the end of this Assembly. A constituent just asked me this today, so that is why I am asking: what has been done in regard to dredging the port of Hay River? What work has been completed to date? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has laid it out pretty well there. When we initially went into this, we started a working group, the Harbour Restoration Working Group. A bunch of work and meetings have taken place with them on a harbour restoration plan. The Coast Guard has done sounding of the Hay River harbour. The military did a flyover and did some photographs for us. As we speak, an analysis of sediment is under way to give us a better idea around the environmental requirements and permitting that needs to be identified as we move forward on this, but I can update the House on opportunities for funding on this project.
The Department of Infrastructure has brought this up with the federal government around the Oceans Protection Plan. We have given them a list of priorities that we believe need to be prioritized under this funding arrangement with the federal government and, at some point, a bilateral they will sign with us, and included in that is the restoration of the Hay River Harbour.
One point that I want to make is that the federal government is not very keen on doing dredging, but we keep pressing the point that this is a priority for us, as it is a security need, a food issue, a resupply issue. The port of Hay River is a focal point of the Marine Transportation System, in and out, and in and out for Coast Guard themselves.
We will continue to pursue federal funding and make our case on the Oceans Protection Plan, and at some point, hopefully we will be able to make an announcement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The federal government isn't too keen on funding dredging, and it doesn't seem like the territorial government is, either. I did a quick Google search of "dredging Hay River," and it came up with posts from the last decade, MLAs standing up in this House talking about dredging the port of Hay River and nothing getting done. Finally, we have a vocal MLA over here hammering this issue. We have a Minister from Hay River. When can we expect this dredging to begin? I hope the answer is 2018.
Let me reassure the House and residents of the Northwest Territories that it is not just the Regular MLA from Hay River pushing this issue. I will tell you that. This has been brought up at a number of federal FPT meetings. It has been brought up one-on-one with the federal Ministers. I continue to push this thing. The bureaucracy pushes back, maybe, a little bit, as I have said in this House, around ocean protection money.
We will continue to pursue the federal money to do the dredging in the Hay River Harbour, as it is a priority, particularly since we are the owner of MTS and the Coast Guard base is facilitated in Hay River. We will continue to push the case.
Does the Minister have any numbers he can share with us about how much they expect this dredging to cost? Maybe we can swing it ourselves and don't have to wait on the feds.
I don't have that exact cost in front of me. I think a lot of this work is going to depend on the sediment samples that we get and the amount of dredging that we want to pursue. There is probably a small amount version that we can tackle to address this situation, but that only does a short-term addressment. The long-term addressment is probably in the millions of dollars.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not even quite sure what to ask anymore. Let's talk about addressing in the short term. It sounds like there might be a plan to address it in the short term. Could the Minister elaborate on what that would look like? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would have to work with my colleagues in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the permitting around the federal situation, because Waters is under the federal jurisdiction. What that permitting would include, I am sure there is a lower threshold, depending on the amount that we would want to dredge. It could be the possibility of a backhoe doing it in the wintertime or something off a barge, but these are the types of questions that I can check with the department and get back to the Member, on what a short-term measure would be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
