Robert Bouchard

Mr. Chair, is there any expectation over the next few years to start to contribute more to this fund?

That’s it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, not that it’s that important, but I’m wondering, because I think this is an important issue, but not that the cost is an important issue, but does the department have any estimates of what the rollout cost of this program would be to start?

Mr. Speaker, has the department looked at other regions where they have implemented these units? Have we re-introduced or re-created the program? I know some of the issues that the department had in the past, they’ve basically created their own system and then we found out there were flaws because we never looked at other jurisdictions. Has the department looked into the other jurisdictions?

I just look forward to seeing the way the structure is completed once we have the project up and running and the entity, how it’s going to be run.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question about the fibre optic link contribution, the $7 million. Is that an interest cost or can we capitalize it?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is about the NWT Heritage Fund. We have guidelines in place on that contribution and what those funds will be used for in the future. Is there a buffer time zone that we don’t withdraw that money within the first 10 years of the fund or is there any kind of guidelines?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to discuss one of the commissions that are going around the Northwest Territories, the NWT Electoral Boundaries Commission. I’d like to talk about this commission and its involvement throughout the communities. Right now they are in the process of doing public consultation and we’ve given them direction to go out in the Northwest Territories and get opinions from the residents of the Northwest Territories to see what we do for electoral districts. Do we want 18, 19 or 21 MLAs?

They had a meeting last night in Hay River and it was very poorly attended, sadly...

My other question is about the Merv Hardie. I’ve heard that they need to potentially do an upgrade to the engines and stuff like that. Would that be an operating cost or would we be capitalizing any kind of major engine repairs to that ship? Obviously, we’d do that before we would send it up to Tsiigehtchic, I would assume.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just had one more follow-up question. My question was about Highway No. 7. Again, Mr. Menicoche is probably happy I’m asking this question. About the maintenance – and we talked about spring maintenance and getting maintenance done early – I know that was a large issue and I think that was probably one of the successes of last year’s roadway, was to get the maintenance done earlier. I’m just wondering if the department has the same commitment to get that maintenance on Highway No. 7 done early in the springtime.