Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I had questions to the Minister of Transportation. I’d like to continue my questions. Bassett Petroleum will be doing 120 loads of delivering fuel to the community of Deline. In the assessment by Bassett Petroleum, operators of those vehicles, they’re asking to see if the department is going to put kilometre markers along the road to Deline, even to have a few pullouts on that road to Deline.
Does the Minister think that’s something that can be done this year in regard to these two items?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe those can be done. The Member and I talked about that when we were on the winter road and the department also noted that the kilometre markers were non-existent and they felt that it was important that those be put in. We have the two guys up there now working on the winter road, plus the supervisor. So, I’ll have the department look into placing them, maybe not one at every kilometre, but in strategic locations throughout the winter road.
In the Department of Transportation, one of their objectives is safety on our highways. Certainly that applies more so with the winter roads in our communities.
As part of the Safety Program in the Department of Transportation, are there any requests or consideration for additional maintenance on our winter roads? We have about a month and six days left if the weather holds out to have our winter roads still in operation.
I think that when the department proceeded with bringing the extra monitors in, monitoring traffic and monitoring other traffic on the winter road in the Sahtu, we were doing that for safety reasons. Recognizing that on our trip into the Sahtu on the winter road, the road being rough is also a safety issue. I will go back to the department, and the department seemed very responsive when I first discussed it with them. So I will go back to the department to see if there can be money freed up somewhere within our O and M budget to maybe do some more work on that winter road in the Sahtu. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. I’ve noticed how much the people in the Sahtu appreciate the Minister coming in and driving a section of that winter road and seeing firsthand the conditions that people have to drive day in and day out.
Given the limited amount of time that we have on our winter roads, given that Fort Good Hope is going to experience a lot of traffic this weekend because of the hand games, a lot of people are coming in for the hand games and a written e-mail from one of my constituents who is in the department is working that section, so people can call that Transportation person and make comments or complaints to Transportation about the winter roads. There’s going to be a lot of traffic and people are concerned about the driving conditions.
We will do what we can to try to fix the road up, maybe pay some special attention to that portion of the road. We noticed on our drive there, about half of that road is in pretty good shape. So we’re probably talking about 60 to 80 kilometres of road that is rough as we get nearer to Fort Good Hope.
What we can also do is have the indication of the number or any of the people that need to be contacted to address winter road issues on the website. Then I’ll have the people attend to that winter road website to ensure that the contact people are there for this weekend. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe people who are in the Sahtu or people who are planning to go up to the Sahtu appreciate what the Minister is saying in this House this afternoon.
I want to also thank the Minister and to follow up on his commitment on a preconstruction meeting for next year.
Is the Minister also going to seek the opinion of one of the users as Bassett Petroleum operators and see if they can be a part of that preconstruction discussion as to the conditions of our winter roads? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I can’t commit to having the contractors that are hauling contractors attend such a meeting, but what I can commit to is that as they continue to do their reports and giving us good indications of the driving conditions of the road that we will take those reports into consideration during the preconstruction meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
