Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about dredging and my questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. Since the federal Department of Public Works vacated their role in Hay River in ensuring that the mouth of the river and the shipping channels in that area were dredged on a regular basis, whose responsibility is that function at this time?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The responsibility of maintaining navigable waterways is with the federal government.
Since this lack of dredging is impacting industry in Hay River, what role does the Minister see himself in in communicating with the federal government on this situation? Have meetings taken place? Has the Minister met with industry? Has he met with federal counterparts who may have a role to play in this and could help bring some resolve to the situation?
I guess several Ministers could have a role to play in the concern that’s being raised by the Member. The fisheries are being impacted, as was stated in her comments. I guess it could fall under ITI. As a potential disaster, it could fall under MACA. NTCL is concerned about the channel there, so I guess that would fall under DOT.
We as a government have had the concern raised to us by the municipality and we have indicated to them that there was some potential programs that we could flag for them to provide that information to them. We’ve also had a meeting with the Member for Hay River North, our Speaker, who has also raised this concern as something that’s beginning to be a real serious challenge of how we move forward. I believe our MP has had an opportunity to speak with Minister Gail Shea, who is the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and those talks are ongoing. We have, of course, raised it also as a department with our federal counterparts and those discussions are ongoing.
Is the Minister aware of any federal funding which is specifically available in relation to these kinds of issues in navigable waters? I have observed from the air, flying into Hay River, the buildup of silt that’s creating its own delta beyond the delta. Vale Island is a delta in the mouth of the Hay River and I’ve observed it, flying over this summer. It is going to have a huge impact if something is not done about it. I will not recite all that again. Is the Minister aware of any federal funding that we as a government could access to address this?
We certainly agree with the Member’s description of what’s happening on the harbour. The silt buildup is of concern, of course, but the low waters are compounding the problem. We’ve had several users identify some programs that could potentially be resourced. I believe the municipality was provided with that information and followed up. My understanding is that it wasn’t successful.
We have talked to our federal counterparts. We have been talking to the Coast Guard and we’re hoping that they’ll be able to identify some dollars to at least provide some relief to the situation that’s growing in the town of Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve heard that it’s not the GNWT’s responsibility. The town is looking to this government for some assistance. It does impact our people. It does impact our industry, even if it is not technically our responsibility. Does this government have any money to help address this situation? I observed, with interest, the anticipation of the flooding of the Red River in Manitoba again, and I think technology has changed a bit since those old federal DPW dredges were out there.
There’s equipment, there’s people, there are contractors who are in this business. Like I said, I read it because it’s in the news with respect to the Red River and the anticipated flooding there again this year. If we could at least identify the scope of the problem and what needs to be done, then we might have a better idea of what it could cost. But does this government have any money to help Hay River in this regard? Thank you.
I was going to say right up front that we didn’t have any money or resources to allocate to this situation, but it is a serious issue. It’s been raised by a number of sectors of people that live in Hay River and also the Hay River Reserve. We want to follow up on our discussions with the federal government. We are hoping our discussions with the Coast Guard are going to be successful; I can’t say that it is right now. We haven’t had anything confirmed in that area.
We need to bring in the federal government, especially the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. This is their area of responsibility. For us to step in and start assuming that without any resources, we’d have to take the money from another project or another area and that’s going to be difficult as resources are tight. I want to assure the Member that we’ll follow up. I am meeting with the Minister of Transportation in the next couple of weeks and I will certainly try to raise this as an issue that needs attention. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
