David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there are wait times. The department has been looking at a way to address this.

About 60 percent of all drivers’ examinations in the Northwest Territories are done in Yellowknife and that was by one driver examiner. Recently, the department has centralized the management structure of the transport compliance section and moved the driver examination program to that area. This has given the department some additional flexibility to deal with the significant demand that we’ve seen in that area.

Staff are working on a plan right now to reduce the waiting times in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I welcome all the visitors in the gallery and thank them for their patience. I wanted to recognize a constituent I had in the audience today, Ms. Mira Hall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Northwest Territories Community Futures Program 2010-2011 Annual Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The federal government’s expectation of us is that we would go through the environmental assessment. We would find out what the construction costs would be on the project. Again, we will be going forward to the federal government if that price gets higher than the $150 million that they’ve committed. That’s a discussion that we will continue to have with the federal government as this project moves forward as we know better what the costs are going to be. I can assure the Member and other Members of this House that that is an important part to all of this and we will continue to pursue that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue discussions with the federal government on the funding. It is $150 million. Again, those discussions are ongoing on how that funding is going to roll out and what the split will be, and we’ll continue those discussions. Thank you.

We had hoped to get before committee and give a presentation on the status of the Inuvik-Tuk highway. We have provided a written update to the committee, and we were happy to do that. This fall when we have more information, again, we’ll be very happy to work with Members on that side of the House to show them what we’ve done that will identify where the granular material is and next steps forward. We’re going to need the support of Members to ensure that this project moves forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once we complete the environmental assessment, it goes through the review process. I’d be more than happy to share that level of detail with all Members of this House. Thank you.

That very much is a hypothetical question. Our expectation is the bridge will be open this coming November. I thank the Member for his question but it is a hypothetical question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That has been the case on the project for the past two weeks. We’ve been two crews working 20 hours a day and when concrete begins to be poured here shortly, that will increase, undoubtedly, to 24 hours a day construction on that project.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to pursue the completion of the environmental assessment and that is currently underway. We’ve also done a great deal of geotechnical analysis on the route and are working with both the community leadership in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik. Thank you.