David Ramsay

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank the Member for the question. This is an issue that has been around for some time. It is directly related to tourism as well. The length of the runway here in Yellowknife has been an issue. It’s something we continue to look at. There is, perhaps, an opportunity working through the Department of National Defence at expanding the runway length in Inuvik and Yellowknife. Inuvik is more advanced in discussions with DND on expansion there. Costs have gone up tremendously. I believe the project in Inuvik is somewhere between $60 million and $90 million. So it’s a...

Yes, the repairs have been concluded at the Inuvik air terminal building. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Member’s concerns. However, we got the marching orders from this Legislative Assembly to pursue new opportunities and that is something that the department is doing. I believe wholeheartedly that we can balance the demands on maintaining the system that we have while pursuing new objectives. We have a ready, willing and able partner in the federal government.

In looking at the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, we are going through the environmental assessment currently. We are going to determine what the cost of that highway is going to be. We have not got...

Madam Chair, just to add to Deputy Minister Neudorf’s comments, we have had some success at the Norman Wells Airport when it comes to the surface. We had it grooved. It decreases the amount of friction. When you are talking to people in Inuvik – and it wasn’t as much of an issue last winter, it was the winter before – what would seem like a nice day, the weather wasn’t that bad, but the friction on the runway was such that planes couldn’t land and take off and it becomes a safety issue. That is something that we are monitoring closely and perhaps at some point in time we may need to look at...

We don’t do that for other offences under the Motor Vehicles Act, so I can’t see us doing that for this amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act. It’s just not something we’ve done in the past and I don’t see us doing that in the future.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe the original structure there dates back to when Inuvik was first moved over, the late ‘60s. There were a number of additions added to the existing structure to get us to where we’re at today, but certainly the main component of that building dates back to the late ‘60s. Thank you.

Yes.

We wouldn’t want to disrespect a grizzly. That would be trouble. We’re not sure if that is our bear or maybe ITI’s bear or another government department’s bear, but we will find out and we will get that remedied.

On the emergency planning, that is part of the regulatory requirements when we’re operating an airport. We meet with the RCMP and other emergency agencies and there are full-blown exercises that take place in a variety of communities across the Northwest Territories. Norman Wells is one of them where they go through a full exercise on emergency preparedness and response.

Also, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right I’ve got the deputy minister of the Department of Transportation, Mr. Russell Neudorf and to my left the assistant deputy minister, Department of Transportation, Mr. Daniel Auger. Thank you.

The Member is correct; as we develop resources in the Sahtu, there’s going to be increasing demand for commercial space at our airports, not just here in Yellowknife but in Norman Wells and other airports in the territory. We need to work at finding money to enable us to have those lands available for commercial development. That is going to take advantage of the resource development that’s happening in our territory and other developments that are happening. That’s an important step as we move forward. Perhaps I can go to the deputy minister for more detail on that.