Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year's shipping was affected by sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, and it looks like, this year, forest fires may affect the delivery of goods to Nunakput communities. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Infrastructure give an update on the department's contingency plans to ensure that petroleum products and dried goods get delivered to communities along the Mackenzie River and also to communities in Nunakput? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said in this House over the last couple of days, first of all, we moved up the sailing season to try to alleviate the situation. We've been working with the fuel supplier, and now we have these fires that have started in Alberta which throw some of those plans into jeopardy, where we'll have to go back and rejig this. As I've updated the House today, we're working with our fuel supplier and looking at trucking things to Hay River in the short term, depending on how long it takes CN Rail to ramp their system back up and get their services available to Hay River. We'll continue to do that. If that becomes an issue, we're going to be looking at trucking, like we said, around the Liard Highway.
One of the things that I didn't mention yesterday, that I forgot to mention, actually, is about what we're going to try to do for the IRC communities, and we need to get this information out. I believe the department has posted our schedule, as I've said, and I'm glad that the Member has asked us this question, because he can post it on his Facebook page and help us get the message out there, as well. Because we're changing our sailing season, we want some people to be well aware of that because we're moving the dates up. We want to stage all the IRC, our coastal community stuff. We want to stage that stuff in Tuktoyaktuk by mid-July with all our barges, and be loaded, and tugs ready to sail, as long as sea conditions are safe at that time. That's going to change the dates a bit, so I want the community members to be well aware that that's going to change a little bit, so they've got to try to get their freight to the terminal in Hay River a lot sooner.
We're going to work closely with the Coast Guard, as I said yesterday, to hopefully have their vessels there to have adequate ice-breaking services to help support us if need be. We will continue to work with the communities and the IRC and the residents of the coastal communities to make sure that these goods are sitting, as I said, in Tuktoyaktuk in July, mid-July, to do that. If the fires become an issue, the long-term trucking plan is to continue to work with them and the railroad. I will continue to update all Members in this House. I know we're only sitting for a few more days next week. I can probably update the House next week on where things are at, as well, but throughout the summer, we'll continue to try to get the message out there the best we can, and maybe email all Members on this situation.
It's good to see that the Minister and the department are working on the fly on issues like this, as sometimes they may get bigger and bigger within a 24- or even 12-hour window as we see the fire growing in the territory. This fire is getting bigger every day, and I'm concerned that this may have negative effects on the communities in the Far North. As we've already experienced phone and fax line issues in remote communities, my question to the Minister: has the Government of the Northwest Territories thought to FireSmart and important infrastructure like communication towers, fibre lines, and other means of communication we rely on in the Northwest Territories on a daily basis?
As I have updated the House, we are monitoring these fires in Alberta as closely as we can and working with the Alberta government. The Alberta fire crews are taxed right to the max. I think that they are trying to protect as much critical infrastructure as they can right across the province. There are a number of fires going on there. They are doing the best that they can, and we thank them for what they are doing and are certainly glad that crews will be able to go out there and support them as well.
We are not aware of any impacts on communication infrastructure serving the North at this time, but we will keep a close eye on the situation. One of the other things, I guess, based on this question, that has come to my thoughts sitting here was, you know, the Yukon government is looking at putting their fibre line in from Tsiigehtchic to the Yukon as a redundancy line. I know that is not in place right now, but that is something that will certainly be a welcome addition, to have redundancy built into the system around that type of infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
