Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to my Member’s statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation. I'd like to ask the Minister: can the Minister confirm the number of crushers available in the Northwest Territories through his department at this time?
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I cannot commit to how many crushers we have available for community access. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it's actually two --
---Laughter
From what I understand. I'm not sure if it's divided between the north and south, that's what I wanted to ask. How does the department choose which community will use the crushers, and how does it establish the priority?
Masi. Member's done his homework. Minister of Transportation.
I don't know how we pick communities, who's on the priority list or anything, but I'm sure there's a schedule, and based on priorities and needs. I can commit to looking into that for the Member.
That’s what I wanted to get at. Will the Minister be willing to work with the community of Aklavik to start the process, and to ship the unit to Aklavik hopefully over the summer, not too late because the water usually drops quite a bit by the second barge, from what I understand, and start preparations for the next year, next budget, so the community could build up the roads, as I mentioned earlier. A lot of challenges with the roads in our community.
I would encourage the community of Aklavik to work with businesses in the Beaufort-Delta region in the private sector to fulfill its crushing needs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community doesn't have the money that the Department of Transportation has to hire these contractors to do these services for them. The department has these crushers available to communities that need it. The community could do this work with their limited budget of maybe a couple hundred thousand, whereas to hire one of the contractors we're talking millions, at least over $1.5 million for sure. That's why the community is asking the department to work with them.
The community of Aklavik has different access to funding through infrastructure money through MACA and other sources, so I'd encourage the Member to have the community look at those sources of revenue.
Masi. Colleagues, I'd like to draw your attention to the visitors in the gallery. We have Yacub Adam, he's a member of the Human Rights Commission that's here with us today, and he's also a close follower of our work in this House. Welcome. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
