Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise again. This is the second time this week that this matter has been raised. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation. It's with regard to the safety of Highway No. 4 on the stretch from Niven Gate into town, the fourway stop in front of the Explorer Hotel.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to get correspondence from concerned citizens with regard to the safety of that stretch, and, as most know, now we have two hotels there with visitors as well as higher vehicle traffic in the area. It's becoming really concerning, given that there is no delineations on the roadway whatsoever right now as it relates to painted lines, and, as we're getting into the darker days, Mr. Speaker, this is all very problematic and troublesome as it relates to public safety; and so my first question for the Minister is: first, does the Minister recognize that this is now a commonly used active transportation corridor for walkers and cyclers and the like? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a commonly used area. As I walk it every day when I come to work, I have crossed the highway and I come up the side of the highway and then take the secondary road to the Legislative Assembly. As I have stated in the House yesterday, we are working on this. We've met with the City of Yellowknife, user groups from Niven Lake, and we will continue to meet with them, and, as of even recently today, I've mentioned to another Member from the City of Yellowknife that at our next meeting I will gladly invite all the MLAs from the City of Yellowknife to participate in those talks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Although I appreciate that the Minister continues to give this reply, the meetings are not being productive; and what do the meetings mean, anyway? This is not the city's stretch of road. This is not the hotel's responsibility. This is not the other stakeholders' responsibility. The bottom line is, this stretch of road is under the ownership, operation, and maintenance of the Department of Transportation and it is their budget that needs to be invested in the public safety of this highway. We are putting people at risk. When are we going to stop the meetings and pushing this aside, and when are we going to start to invest in public safety? Will the Minister commit his department to this capital budget in putting in a delineated line where the public can walk safely and ride safely from Niven Gate into town?
As I stated in the House yesterday, we want to move forward with painting the lines on the highway, weather permitting, and this would be including the line along the edge of the highway where people can walk. Weather permitting, we are committed to doing that within the next coming weeks, so long as the weather is there.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. Also in addition, as it has been requested a number of times and now that there is a significant amount of foot traffic, bike traffic, and in some instances, parents pushing strollers, now with the new hotel and seemingly traffic coming in four different directions in and out of the Ledge, in and out of the new hotel, in and out of town, will the Minister make a commitment from his department to put an illuminated pedestrian crosswalk from the entrance to the new hotel across to the Legislative Assembly so people can safely cross that stretch of road?
Hear, hear.
No, I cannot make that commitment here today because I believe, if we are going to do this, this is the same similar situation we had in Hay River. There had to be a traffic study done and bring all user groups together, how we would move forward with this, what type of even traffic stuff we would have to have in place there. There are various things that would have to be considered. But what I do commit to in this House is I would sit down with all the user groups, as I said yesterday, the City of Yellowknife, the Niven Lake working group, Alternatives North, the Yellowknife Members, and bring it back to this House if we need to put some infrastructure into place there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that response, because it sounds to me like now we might be able to do a traffic study. I'm not sure that we need all of these stakeholders involved to give the approval that they would want one done. I think I can speak freely for them now and say, let's get on with it. Will this government commit do doing a traffic study as soon as possible, meaning immediately? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said, we have to include everybody. We're not going to exclude everybody. We have to involve everybody in this process and make sure it's done in a fair and equitable manner and everyone has an opportunity to have input. I appreciate the Member's comments that he'd like us to commit to doing it right away, but there has to be a process in place where everyone can have their input and make sure it's the best decision moving forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
