David Krutko

Yes, I’m on the next page; energy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the committee strongly recommends that the Department of Transportation consider utilizing its Build Canada Plan Research and Development Funds to conduct highway geotechnical assessments on gravel roads adjacent to rural and remote communities to support and build upon work previously conducted under the GNWT’s main street chipsealing program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just a final point. I would just like to ask the Minister and the department that they keep monitoring this, because it is becoming a public safety issue where we actually had to shut down operations. People have gotten stuck on different sides of the river, especially the travelling public. Because of public safety they had to shut the operation down. I think a lot of people don’t realize that. Again, we do have to ensure that safety comes first. So I would just like to ask the Minister and the department to keep an eye on this one and hopefully they can report back next with some ideas and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It seems like we are having a chipseal theme day and I am going to fall right in line with that because I think it is a crucial item, especially dealing with gravel highways, dust control and all the aspects associated with maintenance of gravel highways and how we can cut down on the operations and maintenance appliance of calcium and other chemicals to our highways.

I think that we have to seriously find ways of dealing with these issues. I know that there is, as the Member stated, 1,400 kilometres of highways that are gravel topped and I think that we do have to find...

In regards to another issue, what we have been noticing over the last couple of years is that the water levels have been higher than usual. I don’t know if it is because of the amount of rainfall and that, but it is having an effect on the ferry operation on the Peel because it is a cable ferry and once the water rises to a certain level, you cannot operate. We notice that over especially this last summer, the water levels have been very high and because of public safety, they have had to shut down a few times because of high water but, more importantly, with the amount of driftwood and trees...

It wasn’t clear from the deputy minister. Did you state that this money is a seven-year fund? Is the research money for seven years or is it based on three years?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of ITI with regard to my Member’s statement yesterday and looking at the possibility of supporting the people in Haiti by providing them shelter. As I noted yesterday in my Member’s statement, there are over 160 tents in the canvas shop in Fort McPherson in inventory. This government committed $50,000 to Haiti, but I think the demand right now is shelter. As we can see from the pictures on television, these people are simply using tarps and tying them together for shelter. I think the latest statistics state that there’s over a million...

We are on page 13-13, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, activity summary, $14.366 million.

Ms. Magrum.

Information Item, Environmental Fund, page 13-29. Agreed?