Tom Beaulieu

Thank you. One of the piers that was repaired on the Deh Cho Bridge, we have confirmed that there were three issues with the pier underneath the water. What had happened was that after the repair work was done, we had taken photos of the repair work. Unfortunately, we only obtained two photos of the three areas. We’re going back down when the season is right to look at that pier. That’s my understanding of the pier and the rock that is around the pier. There is some work that needs to be done. There’s some holdback on it.

I’m not aware that we are requesting $4 million to complete work. If...

This has been a very likely project. As the Member knows, it was back in 2009 that we got the money from the federal government for the Building Canada Plan so that we are able to complete this project. With all of the issues that were pertaining to the airport itself, we have been concentrating on that. The information on the actual terminal itself, I don’t have with me, but I would be pleased to provide that information to the Member. But I can assure the Member that the department is serious about completing the project. The project has gone on for a significant time and we’ll be working...

As I indicated, there was an issue with the material and the quality of the material and the quantity, so what we are doing is we are bringing in some crush material and we’re going to blend the material to complete the airport. It would be all of the work that would be required to have the airport at a finished stage. As I indicated, we have completed the change order and the work should have started four days ago, actually. That’s what the change order indicates.

Certainly, we are looking at that. The clinic itself is a good building. Whether or not it will be used for health, it most likely would be feasible for the government to retain as office space, but for this purpose and at this moment we are looking at the possibility of housing the individuals that are moving from H.H. Williams outside of the refurbished clinic as well.

It would be around $785,000 to get that clinic tenant improvements to accommodate the staff at this time. We will be doing a cost comparative analysis to determine whether or not leased space purchased from the private industry would be more feasible. Hay River has very good rates, so that is something that when we go in to needing office space in Hay River we do do a comparison to actually going into the market and getting leased space as opposed to producing our own space through capital because the rates are very good in Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has committed to building a strong, prosperous territory and ensuring its benefits are shared in all communities and regions. Strategic investments in transportation infrastructure will help support the long-term growth of our economy and provide jobs and opportunities to our people. The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway is one of these projects, and I am pleased to report on the success of the first winter of construction.

The highway is one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken by the GNWT and is significant as the first leg of...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the details of that specific contract. I don’t have the details of the change order to that contract, but there are regulations in place, there are holdbacks on all contracts to accommodate any potential issues on the contracts, so those are our standard. They are laid out in the contract. Depending on what the price of the overall contract was, then the holdback would be there. The appropriate amount would be held back to ensure that the work is completed to a standard that’s acceptable. Thank you.

It’s a fairly standard process when the highway is ready for chipseal often it is open to traffic. The concept is that actually the driving on the road before the application of the chipseal doesn’t damage the road where it would need a lot of remediation before the application of the chipseal. As the road stands today, we would be able to prepare it and apply the chipseal and that opening it did not cause damage that exists now today had we not opened it at all.

Preparing the road is just to ensure that the road is ready for the application of chipseal.

With new buildings, it is anticipated that the energy costs would be much lower than other buildings built previously. There is no actual savings because we don’t have a comparative data, but when we upgrade older buildings into this type of energy-efficient envelope, increasing insulation values, we then take that and use those for all of the savings of the fuel that we burn or that we don’t burn, I suppose, on these buildings and then redistribute it into all of our energy programs.

For the new buildings, like I said, we would see a lot less cost than it would be having not constructed the...