Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'll be glad to sit down with the chief of Behchoko. I believe we're organizing a meeting with the Tlicho chiefs some time towards the end of this month and I'll be glad to sit down and discuss that item separately with them. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. No, I cannot confirm if that study has been completed, nor deny it. Thank you, honourable Members. I have not requested the department to see if this work has been completed. It's only now been brought to my attention, but having our base at Behchoko right now is suitable for our current needs. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, we are continuing our assessment on the Kakisa Bridge. Restrictions will be in place until an engineering assessment says anything different. For now, Mr. Speaker, the bridge is old. We do have serious concerns over the stress and fatigue that is with the steel there and the restriction may even be in place up until next year when we start constructing a new bridge on the Kakisa River. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The safety concerns around the Kakisa Bridge have been on the books for our department for some time. In fact, we are up to looking at replacing the bridge. We have been monitoring the bridge for the last year. Some of the international driving courses is the bridge collapse in Mississippi as well as the incident in Quebec last year that really heightened our Bridge Inspection Program, Mr. Speaker. That is what we are concentrating on. With that collapse in Mississippi, it made us take a second look at the Kakisa Bridge, because it is our oldest bridge, Mr...

As far as I am aware, it’s still an alternate destination for Yellowknife, but, once again, the notice has been given to all air carriers that the depression on the runway will be remediated soon. However, it is still a secondary location for emergency purposes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In April of this year, the departmental staff and air carriers were aware of a portion of the Hay River runway. Approximately 650 feet of runway had some serious depressions in there that were deep enough to impact jet planes. So we did look at that. We did initiate some remediation of that section, Mr. Speaker. As well, we just closed a contract to completely resurface and reconstruct that section that has that depression, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly the changes of the new computer programming or general identity card system, the problems have been that there are only 45 characters allotted on the first line and so we usually run into issues when we’re providing many names there, Mr. Speaker. That was one of the complications that we have had. The software changes have taken a lot more time than anticipated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contract to repair the Hay River runway has been awarded and the construction schedule is for the first week of September to complete the work. There has been notification to air carriers and anybody using the airport that this work will be taking place and hopefully it won’t interfere with the regular scheduled aircraft that run into Hay River. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would be glad to provide the Member with more details. I’ll simply go back to the provider, the people doing the testing, and get a firm date for the Member to answer her request. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to say that the department has been working hard with the providers of the software and there have been software changes made. We’re continually testing it in the next couple weeks and we expect to roll out the new changes by close to the end of September, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.