Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In January the Minister of Transportation accompanied me on a tour of the Mackenzie Delta and while we were in Tsiigehtchic the community asked a question to the department, so I’d like to also ask the same question to the Minister.
Has the department considered starting at 8:00 a.m. until midnight as suggested by the community of Tsiigehtchic?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are considering that. We wrote to the contractor. I sent a letter off to the contractor asking if there were any issues or detriments to us following the hours that were suggested by the community of Tsiigehtchic.
A reason a lot of the Members wanted this change in hours was a lot of people are missing their flights to Inuvik because of the delays that happen in the morning.
I’d like to ask the Minister, will these hours be in place this coming spring?
In the letter that I sent to the contractor, it is for this coming season. We had asked them to consider doing it this coming season. We had a very clear explanation from the community why that was an issue. It is sort of the crossing from Tsiigehtchic to both sides of the Mackenzie, as well, so we recognize there are delays there. We’ve put that in the letter and we’re asking that a decision be made for this season.
