Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, Hay River needs dredging. I know the Minister of Transportation had federal meetings, including the meeting with the federal Minister of Transportation. Was Hay River dredging on the agenda?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hay River dredging was not on the agenda because it was the meeting of the Ministers of Transportation and I didn’t have an opportunity to speak with her. But in any event, we should be talking to the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans or the Minister responsible for Supply and Services, which is the Minister responsible for the Coast Guard. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think we have here in this House any of those Ministers, so the only Minister I can ask this question to is the Minister of Transportation.
I guess the question is: What is this government going to do to dredge the Hay River?
We agree with the Member that dredging in the Hay River is essential to transportation of goods. We continue to urge the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. I haven’t engaged the Minister directly; however, the department has been doing some work with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the federal department, and urging them to get the dredging done as we, too, see that as essential.
I know some responsibilities that have been federal only, let’s say building new highways, have now become the responsibility of the GNWT. We’ve committed money to creating some of those new highways.
Is there a way that we can commit dollars to it to maybe move this project forward?
The last time the federal government did spend money on the port was in 2012-13. We recognize that there appears to be an abandonment of that responsibility at this point. In order for me to include that item under the Department of Transportation business plan, again, I would have to go through the process here, the business planning process, and come to the Members to request that money be put into our business plan in order to dredge the port in Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister of Transportation commit to getting a meeting together of all the responsible federal Ministers to see that we can move this project forward in the future sooner than later?
I’m more than willing to meet with the federal Minister responsible, although I can’t set his or her schedule, but I will have the department make contact with the Minister responsible to check to see if it is a possibility that we could have that discussion Minister to Minister or department head to department head to see if something can be done with the dredging in the Hay River port.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
