Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have already had some early discussion on this. We’ve had some face-to-face meetings with industry. We have had some discussions on some of the options with different stakeholders. So we have already embarked on looking at how we can deal with some of these initiatives. Of course, this coming winter is going to give us a better understanding of what we are really up against. Are there ways we can look at alternate routes? Are there ways we can consider some other options is something we will have to decide.

I want to point out though that we have already, along with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have a firm number on what it would cost to build an all-weather road. We have been working with a joint venture company, stakeholders that utilize this winter road and had looked at a number of options including an all-weather road. I think there were 18 different scenarios that we were looking at as options. They narrowed it down to two or three. We haven’t scoped it all out. An engineering firm has been hired to do some of the early assessments. We certainly will work with them and support them, but I don’t have a firm number at this point. Thank you, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, we certainly will involve our regional staff in our discussions with parks. We will also consult with them as to any prior discussion that may have been held and be able to relay that information to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department does have a condition rating of all the highways in the Northwest Territories including Highway No. 5. In our rating, Highway No. 5 has come back as a highway that is safe and reliable. There are some areas that we have included for attention in terms of chipseal. There are two sections is particular that we are looking at. We will certainly take the recommendation from the honourable Member to speak to the parks people and see if we can look at some cost-sharing initiatives. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize the former MLA for the Deh Cho and the Speaker of this House, Sam Gargan.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course. I think we are already taking the first steps to do that. We have participated as stakeholders with the joint venture initiatives that are underway. We have also been working with the Tlicho and the Tlicho corridor to look at realignment, look at scoping out what it would cost to do work in that area. There are a number of initiatives on the table here. I don’t know if we are ready to move forward and go pound on the Minister’s door in Ottawa until we have some firm numbers on how we would cost-share some of these initiatives.

I have to point out also that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to declare a potential conflict of interest in relation to a person's name in the schedule to Bill 10, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2006-2007. I will withdraw my discussion on this item and remove myself from this House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Transitions, there are problems, but sometimes the transitions weren't needed in the first place so we wouldn't be bringing up this concern. You have a committee working group of senior officials. We're talking tenants; what's good for the tenants, what's good for the local housing authorities, not getting their money on time. So I'd like to ask the Minister -- and I don't know if this is a question for the Minister of ECE -- if he's hearing back from all the LHOs and tenants to see if this program is working. Thank you.

…but, Mr. Speaker, let’s just squash the bugs and go back to something that was working before. If you have something that works, stay with it and it benefits everybody. It benefits the tenants that have never run arrears in their life. They are going to do their payments and they are told you have credit, come back in a month. Mr. Speaker, we have a system that works and works fine and works for the people, then the government should stick with it instead of just transferring money back and forth. I will have questions for the Minister of ECE at the appropriate time. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have our own focus groups and I call them constituents.

---Laughter

---Applause

They do call us and they do tell us that this program is absolutely not working. It's affecting the LHOs; it's affecting their flow of funding. Some of them may go into deficit because of this. So I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit his department into revisiting this whole transfer and if it's not working, let's go back to the way it was. It was working for the tenants. I don't know how well it was working for headquarters, but I do know it was working for the tenants...