Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve done a considerable amount of work in the plan to build an all-season road off of Highway No. 3 to Whati. It’s one of the roads where we have a group working on it, GNWT and the Tlicho government. This is something that we are looking at. I don’t have the exact status as of today, but there are some requirements that need to be filled prior to this going forward in the capital plan and we’re working on those requirements now.

We will table the actual strategy for the spring session.

I don’t know if any of the regional recruitment positions are in the Mackenzie Delta riding. I can get that information. However, I do know that if there is a possibility that any of those positions would be eligible for the regional recruitment position, we would use that as a method to fill jobs. If a standard process was not working, then we would use a regional recruitment to fill those jobs.

That’s not in our plans. It is a federal responsibility and it’s unlikely that we will take money from our responsibilities and then expend it where the federal government has responsibility.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had indicated earlier that we were going to take a look at how things worked with the current equipment for one season with what equipment was in place, and if it appeared to be very difficult for the community to manage, keeping the airstrip cleared with the current equipment, then the snow blower would be a capital item or an item that maybe they could work with the rest of the community to determine whether or not that would be high up on the community’s capital list as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can give the Member a snapshot of what we have on PeopleSoft October 31, 2014. There were 19 vacancies. Usually by September all of the positions in the schools are filled so that there will probably be no vacancies there, but with the rest of the GNWT there are 19 vacancies in the Mackenzie Delta at that time.

We will have our engineers look at this again along with the city and there will be some question on whether or not a flashing yellow light is a safe way to cross the road. It depends on the condition of the road and the lighting. I know that we have good lighting at Niven and if that is the solution, if they are able to cross the road and safely walk as far as the Legislative Assembly entrance, we will look at that along with the city.

The report has not gone to committee, but the report is on the website.

The solution would most likely be a capital solution, and we will work with the city and see if there is a possibility that we could bring something forward in the next capital plan. We know that almost any solution would be an expensive solution. Any time you have people crossing a highway, walking across a highway, it‘s not a safe thing to be doing. So, it‘s a solution that will likely be costly if we want to safely cross a highway.

These prices are for this year. We think that the price may stabilize or go back up a bit, but we haven’t hedged the cost of fuel moving forward. We have the Stabilization Fund that’s designed to stabilize the fuel costs in the communities. When the fuel prices go down, we increase the Stabilization Fund. When the fuel prices go back up, we decrease the Stabilization Fund, keeping it stable but not two years into the future. Thank you.