Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so I think I have a list here now. Since 2018, we've spent about $15 million at the Yellowknife Airport on capital programs. And some of that was federal funded through CATSA or through ACAP. We spent about $4 million on various fleet, most recently a $1.4 million fire truck just delivered in December 2021, going to go in service this spring after appropriate training is completed. And we have another $9 million planned in next three to five million three to five years of and that will be various capital projects.
And I think the Member mentioned the master plan. We do are nearing completion of the master plan and hoping to have that finalized in the next month or so. And the Minister has directed us to share that with Standing Committee, which hopefully will get to you guys later this week. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Look, the airfield fire truck, that's all great, but I and important for safety, but I'm thinking of the convenience of travellers. Now that we're going to reopen for outofterritory visitors, tourism's going to get going again. There's traditionally been problems with the lineups at the airport. The waiting areas aren't big enough. Is any of that sort of passengerconvenience stuff going to get addressed in the near future through the revolving fund? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to ask if we can get back to the Member in terms of where we're at with some of the projects going forward as we look to, you know, some of the stuff that's happening at the YZF airport. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, I look forward to that, and I think there's a lot of people that use the airport that are anxious to know what's going to happen as well.
But earlier today, the Minister made a statement in the House about restarting the economic advisory committee. I'd understood there was a couple of different committees that were supposed to be set up to provide a little bit more input from the public and airport users and so on. And I don't think they ever were if they were established, they never really got going, and they never really did anything, and there was no reporting back to the public about what was happening.
Is there new terms of reference for these for the advisory committee, and was there a public call, expression of interest, for people to put their names forward? Who's going to be sitting on this economic advisory committee? The last thing the last time this was done, it was like an old boys club, and I want to avoid that. So what assurance can the Minister give me that this is not going to be an old boys club again? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister or Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we did an expression for interest in the fall, and we had a great turnout. We had a number of people with all different skill set that are interested in being a part of the advisory committee. We are going to bring it up. I went through, and I approved the the committee. And we've reached out to them. I've reached out to them yesterday to advise them they're part of the committee. And, you know, I brought this to Cabinet as well to be able to ensure that we don't we have good representation on the committee a combination of Indigenous, nonIndigenous, women, male, female, you know, some of the capacity in terms of airport knowledge. So I mean, I do want to reassure the Member that as I'm looking through the applications, there were a lot of good application intake. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, okay, thanks. Can the Minister share that if there's a revised terms of reference and the people that she just signed off on with us as lowly Regular MLAs? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, absolutely. And I believe I've gone to committee at the beginning to advise committee that we were putting out for an economic advisory committee to be able to direct to direct some of the master plan for the Yellowknife Airport. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks for that. Yeah, when this was being discussed in the last Assembly, it was very interesting because all of the Yellowknife all the Regular Yellowknife MLAs voted against establishing a Yellowknife Airport Revolving Fund because we could never get any commitment for accountability, representation on these committees. There was no accountability. Nothing. And then, you know, to have now it's being reestablished, that's great. But a little bit of more input from this side of the House would be appreciated. The last bunch were appointed by the deputy minister rather than the Minister. So that's it sounds like this is going to be a little better, but. So I anxiously await for this information.
Some of us actually pushed for a model much more like the waste reduction and recovery advisory committee where there was a committee actually established in legislation, and the representation is set out there and so on, to provide some greater accountability and so on. So I think that's a model that we still have to look at at some point in the future. But I'll accept the Minister's word. I look forward to getting more information about this as soon as possible because I think we have to get this on the right track, especially as tourism is going to start again. Thanks. That's all I've got to say. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. I didn't hear any question. So if there are any how many Members still want to speak to the information items? I'm just looking at the time that we've been sitting for the interpreters. So I don't want to if there's only one more person that I have on my list, we can finish that one up and then we can move on to Education after we get a break. If there's more, then I'll break now. Just okay. So we'll just continue. Get this one done. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to talk about the Petroleum Products Revolving Fund. And I understand that, you know, we buy some of our fuel; it comes down from through Alberta and down the Valley, and then we I think we pick some up on the Pacific Rim.
I'm just wondering I guess, you know, what's what is I guess what justifies bringing fuel over over from the Pacific Rim. I suspect that of course we're saving money. That's probably the bottom line. But is there anything else that pertains to it? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, it's funny, one of the other Members asked this on the floor as well and I remember looking at the answer, and I don't have it in front of me right now. But if I can ask Mr. Brennan to speak a little more about it while I find further information. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So I think there's a couple factors going in to the decision to purchase fuel from not from Alberta and bring it "over to the top" as it's called. I think right now we purchase our our fuel through a Glencore in Washington, and it comes up across Alaska North Slope.
One of the issues that we have of bringing fuel up is obviously we're 100 percent reliable on rail or road transportation. It's a long way to bring fuel in tankers. So what we've done to try and reduce some of the risk is to bring fuel from a tanker right to the port of Tuk where it's loaded off into our barges and barged into the various communities in the Inuvik settlement region. So I think there's a risk analysis that is undertaken to decide just to go that way. So last year was our first year, kind of a trial run. We do have a twoyear contract. And then we'll have some options to whether or not we extend the contract or not.
So it's not just about prices, although we're constantly trying to reduce the cost of living, especially in the coastal communities. It is also a risk analysis that's done there as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member or Mr. Brennan. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So if we put risk aside, is the cost pretty well similar I guess bringing it both ways, or is there a difference there? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is no difference in the cost. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the next thing then is that, you know, we've got we've got MTS sitting there and whether it's we're fully utilizing their assets or not, would it make any sense to if we're paying for the assets and maintenance and that, would it make any sense to you know, not to bring it around from Washington over the top but continue to bring it down by rail for any cost savings? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Some brought over the top versus the North Slope of Alaska may offer risk management advantages, and I think that's just further to add from Mr. Brennan's comment earlier. But the reliability of quality and delivery are the greatest importance, to be able to deliver fuel in a fashion that is safe for our communities as well. But I mean, I hear the Member's comments in terms of how to utilize MTS. I mean, we do have fuel storages. This year we did something a little new up in Tuktoyaktuk where we're looking at planning to be able to have bigger fuel storages so that we don't be able to tug so much fuel up and we have enough storage in some of our regional centres. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the other thing about bringing it over the top is that, you know, it I suspect it'll impact, you know, the opportunities for jobs, opportunities for northern business as well. You know, we've got a number of fuel suppliers or middlemen here in the territories. And I wonder if that's taken into account as well as, you know, the impact on employment, the impact on business opportunities? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure. I mean, we could predict so or we could predict not. But I'm going to see if Mr. Brennan can add anything further just given, you know he's got a little more knowledge on some of the costs and some of the savings in terms of how we deliver fuel in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, and that's a good point, and it's actually the subject of discussion that we had this week in talking about this, was what are the impacts on MTS. And right now, I think that'll be part of the evaluation process after next after this coming season, is what are the impacts. My understanding is that they're negligible because of the way they operate in terms of basically transferring the fuel from the tank from the trains directly into the into the barges for shipment. But there might be some impacts that should be evaluated. So we'll consider that when we do the evaluation next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I think it's important that, you know, that we we try to ensure that we're using northern businesses and we're using northern labour, we're maximizing that.
The other thing, I guess the question is, when we do bring it over the top and we transfer it to other barges there in Tuk, are we using MTS barges, or are we using somebody else's? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we are using MTS barges. And actually, it was later in the fall where we, through MTS, assisted some of the local barges to be able to ensure that we have fuel in fuel supply for communities such as Inuvik, Tuk, and Aklavik. So we had MTS provide that support for that as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, again I just want to reiterate that, you know, that we do have northern businesses that do invest a lot here in the territories. You know, we have a lot of people up and down the Valley that are looking for work. And so I think it's very important when you do your assessment, you know, that we use that as a consideration as well. And I can understand the risk assessment. You know, I've got you know, I don't really have a problem with that because we don't want any major spills, especially in, you know, in our rivers or in any waters. So but, you know, just look at all the I just ask that you look at, you know, at all the areas when considering how we're going to move fuel. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure, you're good? No further questions? Okay. Member for Monfwi.
Yeah, I just wanted to ask I know it's getting late, and we're all tired. And I know when I said that six we make up 6 percent of the population and you said, you know, we don't use the population. But I wanted to ask, well, nine positions in Tlicho region, my constituents, they use that road a lot. That's why I said that, because we use the road. And now Whati's you know, the allseason road is open. So it would be nice if we can have some of these position. 47, you know, in North Slave, and this is the first one that I saw, you know, in Tlicho region in this part of your regional operations.
Is there any plan that some of those positions can come to Tlicho region in the future? Like, because that road is busy and we do need, you know, more position to be transfer to the regions who so.
Thank you, Member.
And ask about that, if there's any plan to transfer any of the positions from headquarters to the regions?
So we've already passed all of our activities. We're just on the we're just on the information pages. So which
About the position so I just wanted to ask. I know I'm I'm at page 257, but so that's what I'm referencing, yeah.
So we've already gone there. So I'll just we'll just take that
I'll talk to Diane after.
