Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve indicated in this House before, the waterways in Hay River are very important. It’s important to keep the waterways in Hay River open to industry, to commercial fishing, to the community flood safety.
My questions today will be for the Minister of Transportation. What has the Department of Transportation done over the last year to do any kind of dredging program in the Hay River area?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve supplied $60,000 in a contribution to help work with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Town of Hay River to advance this project along, but we certainly need to be looking at the federal government for an infrastructure program so that we can get the work done that’s required in the port of Hay River.
I know the department has done some of the minor dock maintenance stuff. I’m wondering if the department has done any assessment of the Hay River channel, the main channel, to do any of that stuff.
The federal dredging program ended in 1994. There hasn’t been a program in place since then. The federal government has completed hydrographical surveys of the port of Hay River. They’ve identified several areas of concerns, but yet they haven’t been able to come up with the resources that are necessary to, in a meaningful way, dredge the port of Hay River. Again, that’s an area that we have identified as a concern and something that we need to continue to address with the federal government.
My next question for the Minister is: Has the Minister had any direct discussions with his colleagues, the federal Minister of Transportation in this area of dredging the Hay River?
Yes, we have, and I’ve mentioned this in a previous response to the Member, is that we hope that come 2014 there is a new infrastructure plan put forward by the federal government that the Government of the Northwest Territories can avail itself of to cover off situations where we can partner with the federal government on getting programs like dredging in the port of Hay River done and other infrastructure projects around this territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m wondering if the department has any commitments for the upcoming years to look at putting any more dollars of the territorial government into dredging.
Our hope is that a new plan will come forward in 2014. In the absence of that, that is something we would consider.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
