Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions are along the ferry operation as well. I know the Minister has answered some of them with Mr. Dolynny’s questions, but I’m just wondering about the strategy that the department is going to come with all the ferries. I have heard also that the ferry in Fort McPherson, they would like to upgrade it as well. I’m just wondering when the department is going to analyze and decide if they’re going to move the Merv Hardie up to Tsiigehtchic, maybe the Louis Cardinal moves up to Fort McPherson, and then we would have a spare ferry. When would the department be...

Obviously, we wouldn’t be representing all of our fellow Members here if we didn’t mention Highway No. 7 during highway discussions. Mr. Menicoche is travelling this week. My question for Highway No. 7, obviously Hay River being part of the Deh Cho loop and promoting that, I’m just wondering if the department is expecting to continue their upgrade and early maintenance of Highway No. 7 so we have a fabulous year like we did last year. Does the department have any additional funds expected to be worked on Highway No. 7 and will they continue to make sure this maintenance happens earlier in the...

I just want to go back to the bridge topic. I missed one of my notes here. I’m just wondering about the corporation, the corporate companies and registration of the tolls. Have we registered most of the northern companies as far as for the toll system? Are we still in the middle of that system? How much flack are we talking with the tolls of collecting and getting operators up to speed on the registration of the tolls?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am rising today to talk about the Hay River Homecoming that’s coming this June 28th to July 1st. Hay River invites all its former and current residents to stay in the community, come back to Hay River and enjoy the festivities that are being organized. It is a time for people that were in the fishing industry, people that worked for NTCL, NorthwesTel, GNWT, or just lived in Hay River to come back, experience Hay River and take part in this great event.

I want those former residents to look up on hayriver2013.ca. There’s a website there. You can register your name. They...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend I have the opportunity to attend some of the events going on in Hay River. As I indicated yesterday, it will be March 1st and the beginning of spring is here, because we have the carnival. The Kamba Carnival will be starting this week and I’d like to thank all the organizers that had to help organize it. I would like to wish the five queen contestants good luck on the competition, and also those people that are in the snowmobile races, snocross races and drag races. Good luck. Hopefully everyone participates safely.

This brings a lot of people into the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I first read this motion I did have the feeling that, from a business perspective, to say, well, let’s stay fair and let business do business, but I think there’s a lot of people in the general public that are concerned with pricing and the way the pricing of fuel and gasoline happens. We have an event that happens in the Middle East one day and the next day the prices at the pumps in Hay River, Yellowknife, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk change immediately where that has nothing to do with the inventory that sits in those tanks at that time.

So I support this motion in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Probably a lot of my comments are similar to my colleagues here. I am definitely happy to see the 3.6 percent increase in the budget. I think this is a department of great potential for this territory. Education is very important to the development of us. Obviously, the activity in Early Childhood Development is very proactive of us to be involved in that. I am definitely happy to see the Student Financial Assistance enhancements, as well as some of my colleagues have indicated that getting money back into the Inclusive Schooling would be a definite asset to us.

Some of...

I’m wondering if the Minister can use that money to assess Hay River’s needs and make some sort of plan so that we have a plan to bring to the federal government. We know in the past when they’ve had infrastructure dollars come forward, often it comes quickly, and we need to have some sort of plan in place. Will the Minister commit to doing that type of assessment and having that type of plan in place?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my statement, I have dredged up some more issues in Hay River, as normal. I just have a question for the Minister of Transportation. Has the Department of Transportation begun to solve the department this year through their budget of dredging?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague indicated, today is a beautiful day. It’s nice and pink out there, but I’d also like to talk about the days getting longer and spring is around the corner.

Often in the North that’s an exciting time, but one of the difficulties that we have in Hay River is this brings on the discussion of breakup. One of the issues that we have in Hay River is an annual breakup and the Hay River has been filling in, getting silted up and for years now, since the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, they’ve quit doing the dredging in the Hay River area.

I’ve brought to this House, a...