Michael McLeod

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. I’m here with the Honourable Michael Miltenberger to discuss the 2011-2012 Capital Estimates of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

As lead Minister for infrastructure, I was tasked with revising the Government of the Northwest Territories capital planning process, with the aim of improving how we plan for, acquire, deliver and maintain infrastructure necessary to deliver required programs and services for our residents.

The changes we have implemented as a result ensure that all major projects are properly planned and costs are accurately...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am happy to hear that the Member is pleased, at least with the process. He’s raised a number of concerns, the first one being the issue of tenders still being put out later than we would anticipate because of the change in the timing and the approval process. I think that is a concern that has also been voiced by the NWT Construction Association, although they are very pleased that we have changed the timing of our capital budget approval. They’ve endorsed it. We have consulted with them.

Our challenge, of course, over the last two years is the number of projects we have...

Mr. Speaker, if the Member hasn’t recognized yet, the leaders provide direction to our Department of Transportation. We, of course, take any issues that affect the safety of our travelling public very seriously. It is a priority. As the Member is aware, we need to engage all the Members of this House as we move forward. We have already had a motion in this House defeated. We have to make sure that it takes into consideration all the different issues that may be addressed under distracted driving. It is going to take something that we want to move forward carefully. We want to make sure we get...

Mr. Speaker, if the Member had attended committee meetings he would have known that we had informed the committee that we plan to move forward on this piece of legislation. We are right now looking at as to how comprehensive a distracted driving legislation policy document should be. We are also looking at recommendations made to allow for municipalities to opt out. This is difficult, of course, so we have to look at it from a number of different assessments. However, we would like to see something in place for consideration by committee and this House sometime in the new year. Thank you.

The strategy that we have used to determine which roads need attention has been developed by our engineers. We certainly can ask them if they want to relocate some investment. However, that would be asking us to move away from areas that we think have issues with safety and vision and they may have some difficulty doing that without increased funding in this area. We would have to be relocating dollars that are targeted for specific areas. We can certainly discuss that and see what possibilities there are, but I would say it’s unlikely.

I have no control on what the Member is going to label his road...

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The reality is, Mr. Speaker, this road is going to require probably a complete reconstruction. We’ve been really focused on trying to develop a plan that will do that. However, the challenge is that there has been excessive rainfall in that area. It has contributed to eroding, it has contributed to culvert failures, flooding, things of that nature and it has forced us to redirect our efforts from reconstruction on a portion of the road that has been targeted, to trying to deal with some of the crisis situations that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A visitor here today has been recognized as the Speaker, former MLA and grand chief. I also want to recognize Sam Gargan as a constituent from my riding. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, obviously the Member is still not paying attention.

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Mr. Speaker, we committed to committee and provided information to committee on our findings. We provided a number of options that we would like considered as we move forward. We have response from committee. We are also watching, with great interest, as Alberta unveils their legislation sometime this fall. We have also had discussions with the CCMTA, the federal body that deals with best practices. They are coming out with recommendations that we would like to compile the findings of all that information with what we...