Michael McLeod

If the situation is as the Member describes, then certainly we will take a closer look. It has not been brought to our attention that the water levels are getting higher than normal. We are aware, however, that there have been issues with high water and every time the water raises above a certain level it causes problems and, of course, the captain of the vessel is the one that makes the deciding call on whether to cross or not. We need to look at the situation and if there is anything that we need to do in terms of adaptation to respond to a climate change issue, we certainly will have to do...

Mr. Chairman, discussions on a new governance model for the airport have not moved or has not progressed any further since the last time we had these discussions.

Mr. Chairman, the government’s ability to pay for reconstruction and also the chipsealing or resurfacing would make that dependant on how fast we go. Right now, we have a long-term plan to reconstruct a lot of our highways and as part of that we want to start doing the chipseal. So I can’t give him a firm date at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was interesting to hear the Member rattle off a long list of projects that have gone over budget, many before my time. Mr. Speaker, I should clarify that we have a lot of projects that are on budget. We have budgets from the north end of the Territories and we have projects here in Yellowknife that are going well. So it’s unfair, I guess, to have the public think that all our projects are off their budget estimations.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct, though, when he states that we had looked at a capital process that we were utilizing for many years...

Requesting information on recreation leases is something that would fall under MACA. We operate under the Airport Act and the Airport Act requires us to charge full market rate. In this case we are reluctant to transfer this land or sell this land as we have to take the long-term view. Land is very scarce in this area. It’s in the area of where in 50 years we’re going to be in need for more land.

We are trying to confirm whether the water levels are indeed higher than historic years. That is something we can’t confirm. We do agree, though, that high water causes concern on the Peel. It brings all kinds of debris, logs, things that are of safety concerns and we are looking at options. We have discussed a number of different ways that we can try to deal with it. I am not sure we have settled on one form or one solution to accommodate the challenges that high water brings, but we may be looking at a different landing system that may help. But as soon as we have something firm that we...

Mr. Chairman, I referred the question to Mr. Neudorf.

Mr. Chairman, the Member can call it the Jean Marie highway if he prefers. It is an all-season road. I thought I’d clarify that for the Member’s information. It is considered an all-season road. It has a capital budget. It also has an O and M budget. Of course, it needs work. There is a fairly low traffic volume on this road, but we will certainly commit to working with the community in working towards improving the areas of concern. The community does have the contract for maintenance on it.

This land that the Member’s referring to is important to the future development of the airport.

Mr. Chairman, first of all I guess we should point out that we do abide by all the permitting and regulations that are required. The gravel is something that is acceptable. We meet the limits that are allowable in our permitting. We have heard from communities for many years. We have also heard from the MLAs from their ridings. That has been a concern. We are not sure if changing our practice of using gravel would eliminate the build up of gravel in different areas downstream. However, we have heard the concerns. We have started investigating solutions to dealing with that. We drafted some...