Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late Tobie Antoine Marlowe and the late Vanessa “Dzee Dzee” Marie Marlowe. Tobie and Vanessa were both raised in Lutselk’e and lived together for over 17 years and both tragically passed away in the home community of Lutselk’e on Tuesday, February 10, 2015.

The late Tobie Antoine Marlowe was born December 10, 1978, and passed away at the age of 36. Tobie was adopted by the late Pierre and the late Helen Marlowe. He was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters. Tobie was raised in and...

We will do what we can to try to fix the road up, maybe pay some special attention to that portion of the road. We noticed on our drive there, about half of that road is in pretty good shape. So we’re probably talking about 60 to 80 kilometres of road that is rough as we get nearer to Fort Good Hope.

What we can also do is have the indication of the number or any of the people that need to be contacted to address winter road issues on the website. Then I’ll have the people attend to that winter road website to ensure that the contact people are there for this weekend. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe those can be done. The Member and I talked about that when we were on the winter road and the department also noted that the kilometre markers were non-existent and they felt that it was important that those be put in. We have the two guys up there now working on the winter road, plus the supervisor. So, I’ll have the department look into placing them, maybe not one at every kilometre, but in strategic locations throughout the winter road.

I don’t have the number for the dredging of the Hay River port, although we do have that number at the department. I don’t have the number here with me. I don’t believe we have a number for all of the dredging that would be required for the entire waterway where the company out of Hay River would haul freight. I don’t have that full number, but I can let the Member know what the number is for dredging the Hay River, our estimate. Also, we can get estimates for other parts of the waterway. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have. Thank you.

One of the things that I have been discussing with the department has been the value of a retrospective analysis and determining whether or not it is beneficial to do a retrospective analysis. We have a functional bridge that is doing what it’s intended to do. It was built within the allowable budget that was agreed to in the House. We’re looking at that and we’re determining whether or not there is some value. I realize that the Members want to see a retrospective analysis. I am trying to determine whether or not there is some value in that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few deficiencies on the Deh Cho Bridge that we are continuing to repair. We believe that the bridge is very, very close to addressing all the deficiencies, although we will probably continue to always do a little bit of work on the bridge. After that, my understanding is that there was a commitment to do a retrospective analysis of how the construction of the bridge went. At this point we are looking at the possibility of doing that.

As the Member knows, we’re very approachable; the department is approachable. When we get information from Members, we do try to attend to the areas that are in the worst condition. We know that we don’t have the money to improve every section of that road to what the members of Sahtu would like to see; however, we’re addressing the worst areas.

As I indicated, we’re approachable and we do want to fix the roads to the best of our ability with the money that we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have training sessions with the employees on disclosure. We have a Harassment-Free and Respectful Workplace Policy that clarifies personal harassment within the GNWT and the public service. We are trying to let individuals know that if they do disclosure in any of those areas that I spoke of, it would be a safe disclosure.

The only thing we could come up with on why there has been so little uptake is people actually don’t feel safe disclosing with the public service, with their supervisors, management and so on. I too get a lot of calls where I indicate to the people that this is an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was fortunate to read the letter that was written by one of the members from the Sahtu, indicating how bad the road was and so on. We had not anticipated that the roads were that bad. We thought they would be improving.

When the Member and I drove on it, it was very early and it was rough, but the department considered that it would be improving. We recognize that we do need more money to continue to improve the winter road and that we need more money for watering and more grading cycles to be able to smooth out that road.

At this time we have a contract in place and...