David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to welcome the Grade 5 class from N.J. Macpherson located in the great riding of Kam Lake. I’d like to welcome all our young visitors to the Assembly today.

In particular I’ve got a few constituents I wanted to recognize. Sade Blondin, Brady Harbin, and Julia Bikbaeva. I also believe Aidan Drew is my constituent, as well, so I’ll recognize Aidan as well. I once again thank them for wearing pink on Anti-Bullying Day and welcome to the House.

I’d be happy to provide the Member with that timeline and an update on the status of the relocation of the airport in Trout Lake.

That would be until sometime in the winter of 2013.

Yes, that’s something that we could certainly look at in the upcoming business plans.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A training component to that is something the department is interested in and something that we will look at.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to provide this House and Northerners with an update on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk portion of the Mackenzie Valley Highway project.

The Government of Canada describes it as “a project of national significance.” We also appreciate that the Caucus of the 17th Assembly has identified it as a strategic infrastructure investment to help strengthen and diversify the Northwest Territories economy. Strategic investments in our infrastructure will be an important part of this government’s plans for growing our economy and realizing the vision of this Assembly.

The...

I will get that level of detail for the Member, but last year in the NWT there wasn’t anyone that perished on our highways here in the Northwest Territories. I agree with the Member that we need to balance public safety with the environmental concerns. I will get the information for both Members.

Thank you. We’ve got to get out, get the geotechnical work done, the environmental work done, ensure that the environmental assessment is complete, get the financing arrangement with the federal government complete and get a better estimate of what the project is going to cost, and I think once all that work is done, we will be able to ascertain what the risks are associated with the construction of the highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. So that, again, that work is going to proceed and we will at some point in time in the very near future develop that risk matrix for all Members to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we move the Inuvik to Tuk Highway Project forward, obviously a risk matrix is going to be an important factor in this construction. We have to learn from lessons in the past, but again, the parallels that some Members like to make between the Deh Cho Bridge and the Inuvik-Tuk highway are unwarranted. We have a willing and able partner in the federal government that’s contributing $150 million to the Inuvik to Tuk Highway Project and we will develop a risk matrix and we will continue to move the project forward. Thank you.

Thank you. As I mentioned earlier to the Member, I’d be more than happy to go back to the department to get their understanding of what any potential environmental impact is with the use of road salt. But like I said, we’ve been applying that to the roads here in the Northwest Territories for the past 26 years. So I will get that information. Thank you.