Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, we, as the Department of Transportation and also through my responsibilities as Minister of Public Works, are looking at ways that we can try to accommodate communities with our need to gravel sources. The responsibility, of course, for gravel supply for municipal projects is under the municipality. That’s been transferred over through the New Deal. The money for capital has also been transferred over, so it would be very difficult to see that clawed back so that we can start a new program in that sense. I am very keen to see what the options are. I’m also very keen to move...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to speak about the reductions in fuel prices that have taken place this year for communities served by the petroleum products division. These reductions represent significant savings for retail and government customers. During 2009, petroleum product prices charged to retail customers by PPD decreased by an average of more than 25 percent across the Northwest Territories. Gasoline prices have been reduced by no less than 16 cents per litre to as much as 33 cents per litre and heating fuel prices have been reduced by no less than 16 cents per litre and as much as 51 cents...

Mr. Speaker, the deficiencies are going to be all completed by the end of November. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The quick answer, I guess, is that most of the deficiencies have been addressed. The floor is something we are working to expedite the repairs to. The material is on order. We have a contractor that’s going to be coming to the community and we expect it all to be completed by the end of November. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think all parties involved, all stakeholders, including the municipalities, have recognized that it’s still cheaper to do an analysis of what the gravel requirements per community are for that year and provide a stockpile versus to try to find 20 to 30 million dollars to build a road. It’s still very difficult to do so. I think there is merit to look at the long term and try to work with the communities, and I’ve committed to do so. I’d like to see that move forward, but at this point there is no program and there is no budget that allows us to tap into for gravel source access...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raised a very healthy list of projects that we are working on in the Northwest Territories with communities to find either improvement through the Access Roads Program to enhance road systems or, in some cases, to try and find a way to lessen the costs to have gravel into the communities.

We don’t, as a department, have a gravel source program per se. We have really tried to reach out and be creative in a number of situations including the Tuk source 177 program where we were able to access the Building Canada Fund and work with some communities such as...

Mr. Speaker, we’ve incorporated a four-year plan to deal with the issue that the Member’s raising on Highway No. 1 from the border to Enterprise and further down towards Highway No. 3. The road width is, I think, eight metres and we are planning to expand and widen the road to a 12-metre roadway system that will allow us to park on the shoulders. We’re also looking at ways to incorporate a number of pull-offs that would assist people that are travelling and want to rest or stop for various reasons. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is currently public highway regulations along this stretch of highway. As I stated earlier, we do not have high volume traffic on this area. We don’t currently have any enforcement on this stretch of road. The Member has invited me to take a look at it. I would be pleased to look at this portion of highway at my earliest convenience. However, having said that, land rovers, other vehicles or ATVs would not be prohibited from travelling on a section of road. It is a public piece of highway. If there are vehicles that are going off the highway and especially ATVs travelling off...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a stretch of road from the Yukon border, roughly 14 kilometres that is referred to as the Canol Road. In theory, I guess, the Public Highways Act and Motor Vehicles Act applies to this portion of road. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that’s a difficult question to answer at this point. We are still doing a lot of work on the Highway No. 7 section, including an engineering assessment and functional design. We’re also doing some of the necessary material preparation, crushing of the kilometre 3 and doing some of the upgrades that are required.

As to doing some actual chipseal, maybe. It’s not something that we’ve decided as of yet. It’s something that we’d like to do. Chipseal, of course, is something that really is dependent on the base and we’d have to be convinced that the road is going to hold up. It will be...