Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Transportation about his statement today.
Can the Minister indicate to me when he expects this meeting to occur on getting all the parties involved in dredging for the Hay River area? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are going to be meeting and getting the group together. It’s going to be ourselves and industry, obviously. So I can’t determine their schedule, but we’re going to try to have our people ready at any time and definitely before the next barging season. Thank you.
One of the parties that we can’t get to the table is the federal government. Are we inviting the federal government to get into this deal?
We can, as the GNWT, bring them to the table and ask them to come to the table. But again, it would be their call on whether or not they wish to attend such a meeting. But we can, as the GNWT, invite them to come. Thank you.
Obviously, the obvious question is: Is the territorial government willing to put any kind of dollar figure towards putting this on the capital budget and getting this project moving?
It will likely not be a capital budgeting process. It would most likely be an O and M item. This would be, again, most likely a contribution if it was to be capital. I think this may be something that could occur, I think dredging would occur every five years or so. I think that’s what has been happening in the past. So for something like that, it would be most likely a one-time contribution and then maybe setting up some sort of schedule, but I’m not sure that the Department of Transportation is going to get into the purchasing of the dredging equipment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would there be an opportunity to commit to a multi-year approach? As opposed to spending millions of dollars in one year, maybe going to a multiple year, like going $400,000 and $500,000 a year for 10 years, as opposed to giving $12 million to the project.
We’re looking for a commitment financially to the project. Is the department willing to put that into their own end budget? Thank you.
The very initial discussions that we had was dredging is commonly done on a five/six year basis. A lot of dredging has to occur for the whole Mackenzie River right away. So not only the Hay River Harbour but there are some spots along the Mackenzie River. So, likely it would be multi-year dredging. But it’s really early to get into it because we need to figure out who’s going to pay for the equipment if the federal government will participate. If we participate, do we come forward with money here in the House? I suppose that’s part of the process. So those questions have to be answered and a plan has to be developed. That’s what we’re hoping to do this winter. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
