Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the weekend of March 1st, there was some concerns raised about who you need to contact to get information on smaller airports. In the past, it was a regional staff, but I’ve heard this has changed. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Transportation please advise the House when it comes to dealing with after-hours issues for smaller airports and they do not have government staff, who do they contact, and is there a 1800 number? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I missed the very last part of the Member’s question, if it was a 1800 number, but we take all airport safety and issues seriously in the smaller communities. If you cannot contact a local contractor, I suspect you can get right hold of the Department of Airports, which would be our local director.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my question is if you’re going to be contacting the NWT or the Department of Transportation, is it a regional contact or is it a territorial Yellowknife contact?
It probably depends on the issue, the concern that the people will have, so you can actually go through the regional person or come right directly to headquarters.
I guess I should have clarified. These are afterhours issues on weekends. In the past, it’s been my understanding, what I’ve been told by people in the communities that there was a regional contact. Now, it is territorial contact. Can the Minister confirm this is the practice?
Any 24hour issues that they may have with some of these airports, there’s always a duty manager on location in Yellowknife. There’s a flight supplement number, which could be accessed through a 1877 number, which I can provide to the Member anytime they want. Airline companies, I suspect, are the ones that are having these issues, and they’re probably well aware of this number, but we’ll gladly share that with the Member anytime he wants.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer, and that’s great to hear there’s a 1877 number. When the Minister talked about the contact being a duty officer in Yellowknife, was this always the practice to have the duty officer in Yellowknife deal with it, or was it a regional office? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Centralizing the functions of the duty manager resulted in the department saving over a quarter million dollars by identifying more effective and costsaving practices for answering calls received after hours.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
