Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement is more in line with the airports and the importance of airports to isolated communities with off-road access. I’m talking about Aklavik and the airport that’s presently there and the concerns they have under the existing legislation coming into effect his year. This is regarding the CAR 704 regulation. I think the concern they have is that presently there are times when you do have to have certain types of aircraft, whether dealing with medevacs or bringing in goods and services, and the movement of people.
One of the issues includes the insurance coverage people have travelling into these communities on single engine aircraft. In most cases, government employees are not allowed to fly in single engine aircraft because of insurance reasons. The same should apply to the clients we have travelling for medical reasons or for government services.
I think it’s important that this government takes a look at our Northwest Territories airports to ensure we are meeting our requirements under the regulation changes, by increasing the width of a lot of these airports from 3,000 feet to 3,500 or 4,000 so they can meet the requirements for the different types of aircraft. I think it’s important to work with those communities that are off-road and that depend on air transport as a means of delivering goods, services and people to those particular communities.
At the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
