Tom Beaulieu

Thank you. More of the consultation portion of the work that Public Works is doing is determining what type of items would be associated with planning studies. We’ve looked at the needs assessment, operational plan, functional program and feasibility analysis for the specific health centre. So that was what the initial meeting with Public Works was about and then from there the decision was made to release the RFP to complete the planning study.

Yes. We try to, within the rules and the regulations that govern the revolving fund, we have some flexibility, so as now, when the opportunity comes where we anticipate the fuel costs continuing to go down for a little bit more, we’re lowering the cost of fuel for all of the communities where we provide a service, and the cost is going to be lowered from anywhere from seven cents to nine cents a litre at this time and anticipating some more costs of fuel being lowered when the delivery actually occurs.

Direct appointment is a unique tool that this government uses to fill positions, and if the committee feels that it would be important for this to be reported in a manner to the general public and if committee has ideas on how we would be able to report that to the government, then we would be open to listen to that.

That’s certainly our hope. We can’t commit to something where we haven’t signed on the dotted line at this point. But like I indicated, we continue to work – our Minister of Infrastructure and their Minister of Infrastructure – and we’re sorting out the details. I feel that once all the details are sorted out and they have a clear understanding of all the projects that we presented in our plan are projects that the federal government Infrastructure is prepared to fund, I’m positive we will be able to roll out new money in the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “2013 Public Service Annual Report.” Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have no problem whatsoever to advise the people in Fort Simpson and apologize for having some failure on the equipment and explain why there was some confusion of the ferry being anticipated to close then extended again. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. What we use is the average of the last 10 years as a time when we indicate when the ferry will close. The average in the last 10 years on the one ferry, the Liard ferry, was November 3rd, so we advised the public that it would be closed anywhere within 72 hours because we thought that was taking us to November 3rd. However, we try to keep the ferry open as long as possible, as long as it is safe to continue to run, so there may be extensions added to that if the ferry is still running safely across the river. Thank you.

Yes, we would consider it, depending on what information they wanted to release. I believe that we could probably talk about the various priorities, but I think some of the information would remain confidential. If the committee has ideas and it was to write to us asking us what they wanted released for what purpose to the public, then we would consider that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have that information. We do advise committee on the amount of appointments that we’ve done over each government. I believe that the last time the committee asked, we had provided them with information on the amount of direct appointments that we had done at the Cabinet level.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing negotiations with Infrastructure Canada on the Building Canada Fund. The thought was that this actual construction season that just went by would be at the time we would be able to roll out that money, but that didn’t happen. So, we are continuing to work with them.

We’re very positive, as a department and as a government, that we will be able to sign the necessary documents and roll out that money for this upcoming construction season. Thank you.