Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that decision was made by myself as the Minister of MACA. We’ve had some discussion with Aboriginal Affairs; however, that decision was mine. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it should be clear that for most of the sections in the Sahtu area, the safety factor and the conditions have increased drastically as we now have industry investing in those sections. There is only one section of the road that is of concern that we’ve been hearing about and that’s the section from Tulita to Norman Wells. We have increased and doubled our maintenance on that road, we’ve provided signs, we’re going to incorporate speed limits, we’re sending contract crews out, and we’re actually doing some specific spotting on that road. We’ve looked at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear that we don’t provide funding for goat trails. We do, however, maintain the Mackenzie Valley winter road, and there has been concern raised over the section from Tulita to Norman Wells. We did have a number of meetings over the last while with the MLA and also with the community of Norman Wells, and we’ve had some written correspondence over the issue. We have looked at the condition of the road. We realize that we do not have the same level of maintenance and investment in this road as we had when we partnered up with industry for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the City of Yellowknife agrees, the Yellowknives Dene agrees, and if it fits within the Department of Transportation’s plan overall, I certainly would support it. We have a lot of work to do yet on this issue. We have to have a lot of discussion. We have to develop a process where everybody is satisfied that their interests are being taken care of and that’s what my focus is right now. We’re nowhere near approving anybody’s applications. There are a number of applications out there that we have to deal with. At this point we have granted permission to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure how close they are to proceeding with development. Our involvement has been to try and facilitate a process dealing with lands in Yellowknife. There has been an application made to the City of Yellowknife for a section of land in the sandpits area. We’ve had some discussions with the Yellowknives Dene. We’ve also had some discussions with the City of Yellowknife. We’ve indicated to those groups that we needed to see all the development plans come forward because, along with the City of Yellowknife development plan, we have the Yellowknives Dene First Nation...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Sahtu is probably one of the regions that I’ve visited the most often in the last year as the Minister. I’ve been there three times and we’re planning to go there again. We are, along with the Premier, planning to drive the winter road all the way to Norman Wells in the next couple of weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Mr. Speaker, we do have discussions with industry on a regular basis. We have had a number of discussions over this past winter and previous winters but, at the end of the day, we cannot force industry to invest in a road that they’re not likely to use. In this case, the road from Tulita to Norman Wells is not one that industry felt they were going to be using for the majority of the rig moves. A lot of the rigs were moved over last winter into Norman Wells or over the summer on the barging system. So there was no requirement for them to invest money and upgrade this road, so it fell under our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would be my hope that this time next year we won’t be having the same discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, the amendments the Member is requesting us to take a look at haven’t been included as part of what we are planning to do. My understanding is our department has been having discussions with the Territorial Farmers’ Association, so I will certainly reconsider that request. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have received several requests from communities to do a comprehensive review on the PATA. At this time, we intend to do a review over the long term. However, for the immediate future, we are only looking at doing several amendments. We are going to look at the issue of exemptions to land where land is granted through a land use permit and we are also looking at some technical amendments. We haven’t been able to commit to when we will do a comprehensive evaluation or review on the whole act itself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.