Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the work that was done was under, as the Member indicated, warranty. There are some deficiencies that have been addressed and there are going to be more that are going to be required. They are going to all be covered through the warranty period. Notification has been provided to the subcontractors of the contractors that were involved and we’re dealing with the issue. Thank you.

There is certainly no shortage of will on this side, and I’m sure if I did let it slip, the Member would be quick to remind me. The Aklavik road right now, a project description report for that project is something that we want to see move forward. We want to be able to contact the community quickly. There are programs out there like the Community Adjustment Fund that we feel we can tap into. We’d like to package that up into a proposal with a business case and take it to the next steps. We’d like to move that forward as quickly as possible and we’d be very pleased to include the Member in all...

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, this section of road is in a very remote portion of the NWT. The use of this stretch of road is very limited. In fact, we don’t have any enforcement of this portion of highway. As of yet, we have not had the opportunity to talk about any improvements. Our indications earlier on were that the people of the Sahtu were not completely in support of upgrading this road as they felt it was going to increase traffic as a result. So we need to have that discussion. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s our goal to see chipseal applied to most of our roads, if not all of them, for the long term. As of yet, we haven’t been able to really prove that it will stay in sandy conditions such as the Fort Liard area. We know some work was done on the B.C. side. We’re going to take a look at that and see if we can do some test areas over the next while. We’d also like to do chipsealing on Highway No. 8 and other highways, for example. We think it’s going to solve some of our safety issues and reduce some of the maintenance required, but we still have to ensure that it’s going to work...

Mr. Speaker, we’ve got a fairly aggressive plan to work on Highway No. 1 and other projects in the Member’s riding, including Highway No. 7. We certainly have heard the comments he made in his Member’s statement on a number of occasions and we’ve put together a budget over the next four years where we’ll be targeting roughly $30 million to...All the portions that require reconstruction, that Highway No. 1, needs to be widened from the border to Enterprise. We’re also looking at doing some reconstruction from the junction of Highway No. 3 towards Simpson and, of course, Highway No. 7 needs...

I certainly agree. Our budget of $126 million, compared to I think Alberta is $20 million for transportation, is a little bit not what we would like to see, but we continue to try to bring information. I appreciate the Member’s comments, because we need to be able to provide the travelling public on road conditions, black ice and bison location. We need to be able to enforce speed limits and any other concerns of safety on our highways, including the width and being able to stop in emergency situations. We will continue to move forward on that. Thank you.