Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the need for capital reconstruction of Highway No. 6 to Fort Resolution is identified in the department’s 20-year capital needs assessment. The first 32 kilometres of the old Pine Point townsite has chipsealed surface, Mr. Speaker. I will, again, look at this issue here with the Members, as I also indicated to the Member for the Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the suggestion that the Member has referred to is a huge task on all of us within government in terms of the limited amount of money that we have in terms of our infrastructure needs in the North here. It’s about balancing our funding to protect and also to fix up our existing facilities, like Highway No. 8, and even to respond to new needs of other areas that do not have a highway. I have other areas to look at also, so I would again take the Member’s suggestion very seriously in terms of looking at his suggestion as one of our areas for long-term...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for Mackenzie Delta for the question. Mr. Speaker, I had driven last year on the Dempster Highway. I know what the Minister is talking about first hand in terms of the conditions on the Dempster Highway. Mr. Speaker, our department’s first priority, of course, to all residents who are travelling our highway, is safety. Safety is number one in our books in terms of our transportation system. I would say that we didn’t do any work on the Dempster Highway in terms of putting calcium coating on the surface of the Dempster and the reconstruction of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly would rely on the Member’s support when we started looking at these types of a strategy. However, Mr. Speaker, I need to remind the Members, and remind the people in the Northwest Territories, that we need to continue investing down the Mackenzie Valley in terms of all our infrastructure and sometime we need to go back to the very basics of looking at the regions that do not have any type of all-weather road into the communities. However, I will keep that in mind when we come to that discussion when we have our regular meetings with committee in...

Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also say, you know, we can have bad roads and existing roads, but some regions have no roads. So I’d like to look at that also in terms of how we do our investments of highway strategies in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, we’ll continue to improve what we have in the Northwest Territories in terms of a highway. There will be some areas that we need to do some reconstruction. We need to do some dust control. We need to do some further maintenance on some of the paved roads. Certainly, providing that we get the support from the House here and working with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the members of the public that the department does due diligence in terms of inspecting all of our facilities, all our highways. For example, yesterday, because of the low water in the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence, we were unable to operate our ferry because there are things that are beyond the department’s control. Ultimately, I am responsible, as the Minister of Transportation, and I certainly treat our operations as very professional and in that we have read good reports. This culvert was inspected. We’re looking at future...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had indicated earlier in my questions to other Members, that safety is a priority for the department and through the department’s maintenance and operation lifecycles that inspections are made on all our facilities in the Northwest Territories throughout; well-checked, well-operated…(inaudible)…in terms of all of our facilities and existing infrastructures. Yes, these inspections were carried out in accordance with our department’s safety policy.

Mr. Speaker, I’m going to gladly take up the Member’s offer. I’m planning, actually, to see if I can drive all the highways in the Northwest Territories. I also plan to sit down with the Member and have a discussion about the future work that may happen in Pine Point. I look forward to working with committee on advancing some of the infrastructure needs with this government here. Certainly, the committee Members would be most important to my department in these types of discussions we have on infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member for Tu Nedhe that my officials will continue monitoring all the infrastructure of highways, marinas, airport facilities in the North, and that Highway No. 6 is one of the areas that we are paying close attention to. The challenge, of course, is to find the funding to improve our existing highways and respond to the demands of all our needs in the Northwest Territories. I look forward to discussing transportation funding priorities with the committees when we have that time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I can commit to the Member is that I would like to drive the Dempster Highway to see it first hand the issues and challenges into the issues here. Because, you know, safety of the travellers is our most important goal here with the department. I would take, again, his suggestion in terms of reviewing the Member’s suggestion. Thank you.