Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was kind of worried there that I might not have time, but.
Mr. Speaker, from the start of this 19th Assembly, I have talked about dredging. People want to call it harbour remediation, they want to call it harbour restoration, whatever. But really it is removing the silt from the bottom of the channel in the harbour so that boats can come in and out. It's not just me that has talked about it. You know, the Member for Hay River North, when he was sitting on this side, he did the same thing. And, you know, Mr. Bouchard, when he was here, he did the same thing. But we haven't seen any of the infrastructure Ministers do anything in the last how many years with this. We haven't seen any dredging. People in Hay River have been asking for it. And I'm hoping that this Minister, you know, will be different. You know, we're giving her a chance to do something, like I said before, that the other ones haven't been able to do. So we are getting like, we are all aware that, you know, we are getting close to the shipping season here. We're getting close to, you know, the commercial fisheries. The other day I was at a meeting and the fishermen were concerned. You know, there's less than four feet of water in the channel so when the fishing boats and MTS barges are loaded, they need a little bit more than that. So I guess what I'd like to know, I guess, is, you know, after years of no dredging, can the Minister confirm if this summer will be different? Are we going to be dragging boats through the channel? Are we going to be having you know, making a few dollars for MTS by pulling coast guard boats off? I don't know. But I think that, you know, we don't want to be spending more money not getting freight up to the communities because they can't get through the channel at Hay River. So, again, will the Minister confirm if there will be anything going on this summer, and we need it done now. We don't need it done later in the summer. We need some type of action sooner than later. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Infrastructure.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I you know, I recognize the Member's concerns. You know, I've been to Hay River several times to have a community meeting and, you know, it is important to the Member's constituents that, you know, there's great concern that, you know, we're not getting our tugs out of Hay River on time and, you know, it reflects a lot of our disruption up the valley. So, you know, I think the Member's going to be really happy right now because we are getting this started. And I appreciate that, you know, we have talked about this and talked about this but, you know, we really seen you know, last year where we just had struggles getting our supplies into Sachs Harbour. That is still the point that we're at.
So Mr. Speaker, I want to let the Member know that we are just finalizing an RFP for the initial phrase of the dredging. We want to call it harbour restoration, and it will be posted in the next couple days, Mr. Speaker; either today or Monday. And I will give a head's up notice to both the Members from Hay River on where we're at with the RFP process.
But I also want to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to thank the Members for their patience as we worked through a number of things, such as the engineering permitting process to get the first phase underway, which will concentrate on the channel. And the fisheries, so that they can have access to the harbour, Mr. Speaker. I would be remiss if I didn't thank the federal government on their assistance in funding this phase of the harbour restoration.
Mr. Speaker, we need our tugs out there in order to keep schedule this year. We need them. It's, you know, very important to some of the Members. It's important to this government as well as the communities to get supplies and fuel up the valley. We've spent a lot of money in the last year from this government, and we can't afford to do that anymore. So I just want to thank the Member for the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was pretty well the only question I had. And I'd like to thank the Minister for the work that the department has done to make this happen. Like I say, you know, in the last probably 20 years we haven't seen anything happen with the channel, and I think people in Hay River will be pleased to hear, you know, the efforts that the department and this government has made to make this happen this year. So more of a comment than anything. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Taken as a comment. Colleagues, our time for oral questions has expired. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's Friday so I figured I'd seek unanimous consent to return to oral questions, number 7 on the orders of the day. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 7. Are there any nays?
Unanimous consent denied
