Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. As I mentioned, over the last couple of years here, we have been reusing the material in our river system to be used for our landings. I would like to ask the Minister: why is the department reusing the gravel, even though it is mostly mud and clay? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a couple of things around this, and we have talked about the river levels in, particularly, the MLA's riding, how it has fluctuated, and then some flooding, then it's not flooding. We have low water.
The gravel landings are closely monitored to keep an eye on the situation, but to update this House, so that all Members know, we have to be in compliance, mostly, with our water licence use, which is given out by the Gwich'in Land and Water Board. We have to comply by that licence. That is the Member's riding; that's his people, the GTC, their land and water board, and we have to be in compliance with this. We tried to minimize the impact on the ferry landings, and we will continue to reuse the gravel for as long as it is still good to use, and then, when it is not, we will be replacing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister answered my next question, so I will just move on to my third. Is the real reason why we are not using pit-run on our ferry landings because we now have to pay for this material?
The department makes every effort to do what we can. If we have to reuse this gravel to save money, that is what we are doing, making sure that we are not wasting our money, but like I said, we have to follow the provisions in the land and water board's licence. We are trying to minimize the effect on this.
We had questions last year from people who live close to the ferry landing about the disturbances that are taking place there. We realize that people are making a living in that area, they are fishing in that area, and we have to minimize the use of gravel and reuse the gravel as much as we can and try to do the best that we can to comply with our licence.
Over the last couple of years here, my constituents in Tsiigehtchic are getting frustrated because we now have to wait for the water to drop, like, over a matter of two to three days, or more, in some cases. That is because we don't have the material to build these landings like we did in the past. When I used to be a heavy equipment operator, for example, on the Fort McPherson landing, I have seen it where they have built out the landing about 100 to 150 metres, and that was just to get the operations going in the spring; so I know it could be done. Will the department go back to the practice that we have always done, using the best quality gravel for our ferry landings?
I will have to find out exactly what spec of gravel we are using here, but I suspect that it is probably the same stuff that we are crushing and using at a lot of different locations around the ferry system. Another thing in our licence through the Gwich'in Land and Water Board is that they told us to keep the gravel to a minimum, and that is part of our licence. That is one of the reasons that we aren't stockpiling gravel in that region.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I will probably have to go and deal with the communities to talk to the RRCs; I know this was one of the concerns that came up there. We realized that it is having an impact on our community residents. Will the department, if the Gwich'in Land and Water Board say that it is okay to use this material, will they go back to that practice that we have always had? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I could certainly have a discussion with the department to find out the history of this. As I have said in this House now, we are compliant with our water licence. That is what we have to follow, and if the Gwich'in come back with something different, then we can certainly look at the situation and make accommodations where it is fiscally responsible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
