Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, for clarification, money identified here, that would go to royalties and it’s for our own material that was used.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We initiated a planning study several years ago that reviewed all our airports across the North which has resulted in some recommendations to extend a number of airports to 4,000 feet. The planning study was based on the type of aircraft that utilize the facilities in the communities. We have addressed all the communities that were identified in the planning study.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Tuk access road funding came through the Building Canada Program and it’s allowed them to build a road to source 177. We’re still waiting to see from the federal government where investment is going to be in infrastructure for the next couple of years. We anticipate we’re going to have that discussion as things progress. We still also are not aware of what the federal government is planning to do with the stimulus program.

We do, however, have some commitment for investment on this access road to the gravel source with the community of Aklavik, and we’ve done a lot...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, the investment in the Sahtu has been considerable in the last while. We have done a lot of work. We completed the bypass roads in Tulita. In Norman Wells, we did the approaches at Elliot Creek, Hannah Creek, and Donnelly Creek. We did grade repairs at Casey’s Gulch. We did grade improvement at Gibson’s, Christina, Francis, Jungle Ridge and Canyon Creek. We did a lot of road widening. All these contribute to the safety of the travelling public on the winter roads. We have also heard from the Member’s residents/constituents that were concerned about the signage. We have committed...

Mr. Chairman, as we indicated earlier, we haven’t firmed up our work plan for the long term as we’re still waiting for some information and some testing that’s being done, and to get the engineering reports back. It would be fairly easy, I guess, to look at portions of the road that are reconstructed to chipseal, but I am a little hesitant as there is so much need for this Highway No. 7 that if we did take some money out of the construction costs to chipseal, then, of course, that would leave us with a little less to do reconstruction. So that’s going to be determined. The reality, of course...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is aware that there is a plan to service the debt. We need an average of at least 6,400 trucks to cross the bridge through the toll system and that would allow us to break even. Anything over that would allow us to have revenue or a profit. Anything under that would force us into a deficit situation.

There’s going to be years when the traffic volumes are up, there’s going to be years when the traffic volumes are down. For this coming year, we expect the traffic volume is going to be around 7,500 trucks or 8,000 and that’s not counting any other new developments such as...

Mr. Chairman, I don’t believe we have any product that ends up in the landfills. We recycle a lot of the stuff that is part of the reconstruction, and the material that is dug up, we put in as part of fill. We don’t, however, use it again in form of new chipseal. I am not sure of the technologies there to do that. I can’t speak for where the chipseal that was ripped up from the Legislative Assembly parking lot went, but I can say, with comfort, that most of the material we tear up, we recycle.

The Highway No. 5 investment is something that is needed. I am not sure if the Member is aware, but we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again, we are very pleased to hear that the Member has recognized that the capital process is improved and it’s working a lot better. The New Deal, of course, has changed the way we do business and our relationship with the community governments. It’s given the communities more responsibility and it’s also given them a lot more freedom and flexibility to invest in projects that they see fit. This was an issue that we heard for many years historically, about the inability of communities to decide what was their priority.

At the time of the New Deal coming into play...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Member for his comments. He raised a number of issues across the North and, of course, in his riding. The capital process in the last while has changed and we are starting to certainly see the benefits of using this process that requires us to follow a number of steps. We are quite satisfied that the changes are positive. The capital process and the capital budget have been really challenged in the last couple of years as we went forward to deliver many projects across the North. A lot of the regional centres have seen fairly large expenditures and...