Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation follow-up questions on my Member’s statement. I’ve been working with the department and talking with them for more than a year -- for about six years -- and trying to answer the question about getting runway lighting for Jean Marie and new runway lighting for Nahanni Butte. I’d like to ask the Minister what existing plans does the department have to address the need for runway lighting in these communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently there is no runway lighting in the communities of Nahanni Butte and Jean Marie. We continue to use flare pots. We have, historically, installed runway lights and in both communities. They were damaged on many occasions and it was decided to remove them. It is a safety concern with the federal government when we list a runway as having permanent lighting and they don’t work due to damage, and if they’re not consistently operational we certainly would be responsible for some liability in that area. So until we can find a solution as to having lighting in those communities...and we’ve had, Mr. Speaker, training programs to try to avoid damage to these lights, but it hasn’t helped. So we need to find some kind of mechanism for some comfort that if we do install lights that they won’t be damaged. So far we haven’t been able to do that. These lights are fairly expensive. Depending on the style of lighting it could be up to three-quarters of a million dollars for each community and that’s something we can’t afford to keep replacing. Thank you.
The runway lighting training program that the Minister refers to is very successful and I would like to commend the department for continuing that, but we cannot punish communities for past behaviours, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister, once again, to have a good look at these communities -- Nahanni Butte has never had runway lighting at all; Jean Marie has had it before -- and to look at seriously having this very necessary public safety infrastructure at these community airports. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, once again, I think the Member asked this question in our last session and we can certainly take another look at it. The cost factor is something that concerns us and if there is a way to provide adequate training so that the operators and the people maintaining the airports in those communities could assure us that they’re either going to cover the cost or they’re going to avoid damaging these lights, we certainly would like to look at it. It’s something that I can understand the community wanting to have.
But I do want to correct the Member about Nahanni Butte. Nahanni Butte did have runway lights in the early 1990s and they were removed as they were damaged on a number of occasions. So I can commit also to taking another look at it with our staff to see if there’s a way through this and a way that we can ensure that Transport Canada and all our users of those airports are feeling comfortable as we consider looking at the lighting system.
I know that the cost factors are also an integral part of any capital planning process, but I would just like to say again that this is necessary public infrastructure and must be there. The safety of residents, safety for the travelling public, not only government travel, there’s a lot of other reasons people land in these communities in the evenings, et cetera. So I would like to once again, on behalf of my communities, ask the Minister to have a serious look at and support this need to install this runway lighting in each of these communities and I’d like to have the department have a good serious look at it, engineer it, plan it and tell me exactly how much it will cost. Thank you.
Certainly we probably could provide that up front, the actual cost of runway lighting in both these communities. We need some resolution to how we can deal with the maintenance issues and then we could pick the next step to consider whether that would be enough for us to invest in those two communities to put the runway lights back in.
Up to now flare pots have been the safest course to use in the landing and darkness and it’s also been something that removes the safety concern of having lights that are on Transport Canada’s list that do not work and are damaged on a regular basis. So we need to have some answers there and I don’t have them right now, but we can provide the dollar figures and take a look if the Member is willing to sit down with the communities and ourselves and see if there is a way through this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again, flare pots are like a creation from the 1940s, Mr. Speaker, and that’s something that my communities are not willing to accept any longer and I’d seriously like to ask the Minister to begin the process. We’ve got a capital planning process coming up here in July and August. We’d like to work towards getting that on the capital plan. Will the Minister commit to having a serious look at the needs of these communities and work towards getting them in the capital planning process? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I always take all issues raised by Members very seriously and I certainly will, once again, take a look with our officials and with any input the Member would like to provide to this situation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member from Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
