David Krutko

Are there any plans to do any possible extension on the airport in Aklavik?

Out of the $10.8 million, how much of that is for the Inuvik Health Board?

Mr. Chair, I move that the committee strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories take immediate action to develop and deliver a small community chipsealing program;

And further, that the departments of Transportation and Municipal and Community Affairs take cooperative and concrete action to ensure small communities are able to access sustainable funding levels and technical expertise to achieve meaningful progress in regards to the local road surfacing in small communities.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like an update from the Minister. What is the status of the airport in Fort McPherson and also the airport for Tsiigehtchic?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, can we get a breakdown on where these $313,000 are being expended, which communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a program previously in regard to a chipseal program that was delivered by the Department of Transportation on behalf of the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs in regard to small communities. I believe there were some 15 communities that were identified to have work done on it and I know that because the Department of Transportation has the expertise in regard to road building, that’s why there was the partnership involved with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Department of Transportation who had the engineering, the design...

Mr. Speaker, in regard to any equity share that you liken to business, there are usually gives and takes. I’d like to ask the Minister, would you also consider that you’d look at an equity share, that you’d forgive the tax by way of corporate taxes and any tax revenue that may come from these developments, and in lieu of those revenues would you consider what the financial implications of those decisions are?

Again I have to agree with Mr. Neudorf, because I did read the parliamentary budget address and it did stipulate the Northwest Territories and Nunavut by way of harbour development. I think that because we’re just as unique as they are, I think that for coastal communities, it works there. But being Aklavik is only 50 kilometres from the coast, so I think it’s something that should be considered for those communities that are either along the coastline and also for communities that require this type of infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, as I noted in my statement that there was a meeting earlier today between the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council and a couple of the leaders in Inuvik and also in Fort McPherson. Mr. Speaker, in my statement, I have never been so frustrated as I am today realizing that the Gwich’in people that I represent and the claim that I helped negotiate some 17 years ago, I hoped was really going to make a difference but yet, Mr. Speaker, it seems pretty obvious to me that this government is undermining everything that the Gwich’in Tribal Council has worked for for the last 17 years by...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted