Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just on the outskirts of Inuvik there’s a gravel quarry, and this quarry was transferred from the federal government to the territorial government a number of years ago. Since then the GNWT has harvested hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of gravel. There are two pits there. We call them the upper pit and the lower pit. They’ve harvested that from the lower pit, and this pit is within the municipal boundaries of the town of Inuvik.
A little while ago there was an MOU being worked on by the Town of Inuvik and the Department of Transportation. After many discussions and drafts and dialogue back and forth, the Town of Inuvik thought they had an MOU, an agreement, in place. Apparently, this is not the case.
In the first draft they had, there were a few issues that the town had with the MOU. They brought those back to Transportation. They managed to get six of their questions answered. The seventh question was on the setback from the road, which was 100 feet, and that dialogue went on back and forth for quite a while.
During breakfast in Inuvik with the current Minister, the superintendent of Transportation and the mayor, we got the understanding that we had a gentleman’s agreement as to the final condition on the MOU. Apparently, we were one gentleman short in that meeting, because the draft went out and came back to the Town of Inuvik with more conditions and more stipulations on it.
My understanding is that the MOU is just an understanding between the Town of Inuvik and the Department of Transportation as to access and all the other stuff with the gravel pit, and for it to get to the point of where it is now is just not acceptable to the Town of Inuvik. We understood we had an agreement, and I think the Minister would agree with me on that. The last remaining condition on the MOU we thought we had taken care of, but now there are, like, 33 more conditions and sections in the whole document. I think the legal department got their hands on it and made a mountain out of a molehill.
Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
