Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, it’s my pleasure to rise today to give Members an update on the Drive Alive travel safety program.

Drive Alive is a partnership-based initiative that promotes safety on the roads, trails and waterways of the Northwest Territories. By promoting action that will reduce the number of collisions, serious injuries and fatalities in the Northwest Territories, we are helping to deliver on the government’s commitment to building our future as well as this Assembly’s priority to build sustainable, vibrant and safer communities.

Over the next few weeks we will be unveiling initiatives under...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s good to see all the visitors here in the gallery. The Housing Minister indicated I had a constituent here and I was trying to figure out who was Ms. Mary, but I finally figured out it was Rose Vandell from Fort Providence. I’d like to welcome her here. I also want to welcome a former colleague, Tony Whitford, who’s now not a one-man army but a one-man navy…

---Laughter

…and for sure he’s a force to be reckoned with. I’d like to welcome him here today. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I must have spent at least two weeks of this summer in Aklavik. The issue was not raised to me about aircraft types and runway lengths. I would be very hesitant to say I would commit to going back into the community when I was there for quite a few days over the summer.

Mr. Speaker, the current type of aircraft that is flying in there for charter or sched services is the Cessna 207. The airport meets the demands for that. There is really no demand identified for the larger type of aircraft. The medevacs are done with King Air. The airport is adequate to meet that demand. I would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The 2010 rule on aircraft specifies the landing and take-off approaches that need to be addressed on a number of airports and they apply to a certain type of category. In this case, there are 74 community category aircraft. We had done a study in the last government to review the runway issues across the NWT. We use that as a basis and a guide to improve the runway lengths. A number of communities, Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Fort McPherson and in the case of Aklavik, the runway is 3,000 feet and the aircraft that is being utilized in the community meets the 2010 rule...

Mr. Speaker, the Member has already twisted my arm on several occasions on other issues. We have commitments to meet with the leadership over the next while. I would be glad to put this subject on the table for discussion, whether it means going into Aklavik or someplace in the Delta, or if the leadership is in town here, I would commit to meet with them on the subject and have the discussion whether it is something that is warranted. We would also, of course, have to spell out our fiscal realities and look at what the demand is for that airport. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the study that we undertook and the results that we used as a guide did not indicate that there was any demand for a larger 20-seat aircraft to go into the community of Aklavik. That is what the 2010 rule would affect. Those would be the larger planes carrying 10 to 19 passengers, such as the Beech 1900D and the Metroliner and others. Mr. Speaker, that is the reason we didn’t look at extending the airport at Aklavik. Thank you.

There are a couple things, of course, that really challenge us. One is the weather. We don’t have control over that. The other issue, of course, is the carriers are allowed to decide what schedules they want. We can relay the concern that the Member is raising, but outside of that, there’s really little we can do to change flight schedules and things of that nature. However, if there are any concerns, we can certainly pass those on to the carriers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course it is possible. We could have that discussion.

We will incorporate the Daylight Savings Time schedule for the ferries. We have already started working on other ferry services to change the hours so that they can take advantage of the daylight that we have, and that, of course, is becoming shorter every day. We also have to take into consideration that there are safety issues. We have to be mindful of ice buildup and we have to be able to have clear visibility at all times. Those things we’ll take into consideration, we’ll talk to the community leaders in the Member’s area and also have an opportunity to connect with the Member himself...

We have our ferry program to ease the barriers that are caused by our waterways and other obstacles that challenge us. Of course, there are certain times of year that address this. We have worked with other communities. We recently worked with the community of Wrigley on the Ndulee ferry to change time schedules. It was important for the community to have the ferry operating during daylight hours and it was also a safety issue for our workers, and we came to an agreement on that ferry program. We can certainly talk to the MLA and community members if there is a desire to see the ferry schedule...