Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the very bad condition of the road, the access road, from the junction of the Pine Point/Fort Smith highway to the Hay River Reserve. We all understand that jurisdiction is about sorting out who's responsible for what in terms of the context of this road. In that exercise there's negotiation that goes on. Within that party there's usually the GNWT, the federal government, and in this instance is the K'atlodeeche First Nation. The other element to this is that sometimes we get bogged down by red tape and it stops us from doing meaningful things for people at the end of the day. The biggest people that are affected by the bad condition of the road are the motorists and at the same time, the residents of the K'atlodeeche First Nation. My question to the Minister is: am I correct in my understanding that jurisdictional issues need to be resolved before repairs to the Hay River Reserve access road can get under way? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you. Mr. Speaker. To answer the Member's question, the Department of Transportation is indeed responsible for the maintenance and reconstruction of the Hay River road. This section of road was part of the highway devolution agreement that came forward in the late 1980s and the department has funded to operate and maintain this road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If the department is responsible for the work, what are the major barriers to getting this road repaired?
As many Members in the Assembly know, this year the roads across the Northwest Territories have some issues just because of the way of thawing. We've had an early spring this year and it's created some challenges on the complete road system in the Northwest Territories, but on this road in particular with the poor drainage that's on the right of ways and the department is currently making efforts to improve the drainage on this road, and we continue to look at how we're going to upgrade the subgrade of this road. Work will commence soon as time allows.
You know the people that are most affected by this as I indicated or stated, Mr. Speaker, are the motorists and the residents of the reserve. If I can't have reassurances, can the Minister give to the travelling public that go from Hay River and onto the reserve or from the reserve onto town? What are the immediate actions to ensure that the repairs are done to the road? At what point would the Minister commit his resources of the department to ensure the road is repaired?
The department will do temporary repairs as soon as time allows. As I said, the early spring melt and the conditions that are out on our roadways is challenging. We will do everything that we have to do to ensure a safe operation of this road in the meantime but we have to wait for the frost to come out of the ground before we commence working on this, so temporary signage and stuff will be up to ensure safe travel for all.
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the meantime as we wait for the dryness of the summer to set in to help adhere to the conditions for repairs to the road that could be made, what kind of reply would the Minister make in terms of the travelling public that have sustained damages to their vehicle? Mahsi
That is something that hasn't come before me so I'm not aware of any people wanting to make claims against Transportation on the road conditions, but we continue to put signage up and everything in efforts to ensure that there's safe travel for everybody in the general public.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
