Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a Member's statement about Tim Brown. Previously, before he passed away, I was at the airport and we talked about a situation that happened where a piece of equipment ended up falling through the permafrost in Fort Simpson, of all places. We were talking about it. It wasn't an operator. He did this job 20 years. It wasn't the equipment. What changed? The environment. I have some questions for the Minister of Infrastructure today, Mr. Speaker, and first of all, I'd like to thank Tim for bringing this forward. Can the Minister advise the House: what has the department done to prepare for climate change, especially with the issue on the southern part of NWT? I know we've done some good stuff in the north, and I've seen the work, the research done there. What about the southern part, and especially when it comes to airports and highways in the southern part of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for attending today. I am going to take this opportunity to actually speak to a number of initiatives that the Government of the Northwest Territories is doing, because some Members in this House say they don't think we're doing enough. I want these young people to hear exactly what we're doing as the Government of the Northwest Territories, because I believe the actions that we are taking go beyond. A small jurisdiction like we are, we are punching above our weight, so I'm going to read every word on these questions.
He wants to know what we're doing in the southern part for climate change around airports and highways. The Northwest Territories infrastructure network is vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to a reliance on ice roads and infrastructure built on permafrost. Changes in climate, including temperature, precipitation, or water levels, result in increased variability and could affect the reliability of our system. We rely on the stability of permafrost to maintain our highway and runway surfaces, and need sufficient water levels to operate the ferry and barge resupply.
To address and mitigate the future risk and changes, the department developed a comprehensive Climate Change Adaptation Plan which covers all aspects of transportation system. The department has been actively implementing the Climate Change Adaptation Plan for over five years now. We have invested in research and development, including installing and monitoring test sections all across the system. We are working with world-class research institutes such as University of Calgary, Carlton University, McGill, Laurier, and the National Research Council of Canada to undertake research development on the modelling of the future and developing mitigation and adaptation measures for our assets.
We have completed climate change vulnerability assessments across the system. We have been improving poor surface and drainage conditions on our highways and runways. We are working to realign winter roads to overland alignments, and we have been building permanent bridges at former ice crossings to stabilize the highway system.
We have also worked with other government departments on the overall Northwest Territories Climate Change Strategic Framework. We are leading the national-level Task Force for Northern Infrastructure, along with our counterpart territories and provinces, to ensure our infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance practices are climate change-resilient.
We have developed best practices in buildings for northern infrastructure, building in permafrost regions, building in winter ice roads, and we have recently been audited by the Auditor General in our plans and did receive positive feedback from the review of our work.
I think the Minister kind of answered my next question, but I'm going to actually ask it anyway: what mitigation adaptation has the department done to address the issues about low water levels, and specifically in the riding of Nahendeh?
I foresee some written questions are coming soon enough. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are tracking the water levels carefully and monitoring changes. We have been in contact with the federal government about dredging to maintain navigational channels, which I talked about yesterday. For ice and ferry crossings, we have already converted some permanent bridges, and over the long term will continue to work toward converting them to permanent crossings. In the meantime, we have looked at alternative landing and crossing roads which may extend or stabilize the seasons.
Can the Minister advise us: has the department developed policies and procedures for staff and contractors in dealing with climate change issues?
Understanding climate and adjusting accordingly is inherent in all our operations of the transportation system. Climate change has been incorporated into our best practice documents and construction procedures and specifications. We keep involved at the national level to influence and incorporate research into updated national standards and promote professional development.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for his answers as we move forward on this issue here. Has the department developed training programs for staff to help them to identify potential issues when it comes to climate change?
All engineers and technicians within the department have a professional obligation to keep track of the latest developments in their fields of expertise. We sponsor regular training and host a major conference to address current issues, including climate change. We also send our experts to conferences and working groups with their counterparts to review climate change issues at the national and regional levels, and we undertake risk analysis on all our major projects to ensure climate change resilience is addressed and also incorporated into climate consideration into all our operational activity.
As you can see, Mr. Speaker, we've done a lot of work around climate change, and we will continue to do so in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
