Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation and it’s about a road situation in his constituency, but my constituents have to drive over the road. I know I’ve talked to the Minister about this before. My constituency ends at the Hay River/Enterprise border. Your constituency starts at the same spot. But just beyond there, on the highway -- and I know your people have gone out and looked at it and you may have gone out and looked at it too -- there is an erosion on the roadside there that literally when you look down it’s a straight down cliff. It’s like the water that must be coming from under the road has actually carved out a gorge going down there. Now, somebody I assume from Transportation put some of that orange snow fence across this gorge. I don’t know if that’s meant to catch the people who go through when the road caves in or if it’s meant to catch boulders that are going down in the erosion. I’m not sure what the snow fence is intended for. Would the Minister tell me, has he seen what I’m talking about?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t seen what the Member is talking about, but the Member has told me three times now that there is a problem. I think the day after it was brought to our attention we had our people go out to the area that is of concern. There are some issues that have to be dealt with there. I believe we have a plan to remedy the situation, I just don’t have it with me today. I certainly can commit to providing that information to the Member about the project in my riding.
The Minister mentions that I’ve brought this up three times. He must think I’m nagging him. I would like to know, I know he sent his people out to look at it, but I would like to know if the Minister would commit to having some kind of an engineer or somebody that builds roads look at this. Because I am very serious; the last time that I drove over that little spot and looked down there I was surprised. Even myself, a layperson, I could see that there had been further erosion. What I’m afraid is that there could be something that needs to be X-rayed under the road to see if there is some kind of a cavern developing under there, because it would be a very sad thing if somebody went over that and the road washed out. It could create a very serious injury for a person driving a motor vehicle there. I’m not saying there aren’t engineers in Hay River, but could we get an assessment of what’s causing that and what the remedy is?
That cause for concern has been looked at for a couple of years now. Our people have been monitoring the situation. As the Member brought the issue forward to me last year, I had our officials confirm that there is an issue there. They went to the site again and there are plans being made to remedy the situation. We’ll share that information with the Member and provide the reassurance that it’s not going to collapse or that the testing is done to ensure the safety factor will not be a concern anymore.
This will be my final supplementary. I do know the Minister does drive that road from time to time. Just before he gets to Paradise Gardens, if he could just look down to the right. It’s just before Paradise, but the person who hits that road when it caves in will be going to Paradise. If he could just commit to visually himself look at it so he’s familiar with it, I would really appreciate it.
I’m familiar with where the Paradise...
---Laughter
...the problem is and I will certainly stop and take a look at it. In fact, the next time I’m in the area I will go there with some of our officials and take a look at it personally.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
