Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The dredging of any rivers or ports is the responsibility of the federal government. However, we have, in the past, participated and I believe in 2012-13 we got some money from the federal government and we did some dredging right at the port. So we continue to work with the federal government to see if there’s money that can be had to continue the dredging.

Mr. Speaker, the health and safety of our employees is of utmost importance in ensuring we have a strong workforce, able to provide services to residents of the NWT. We have been working aggressively to uphold and enhance occupational health and safety across all Government of the Northwest Territories worksites.

To this end, we are pleased to confirm the launch of the GNWT’s corporate Occupational Health and Safety Training Program. OHS training helps all employees understand the value of health and safety to reduce workplace injuries. There are two streams. One focuses on training for all...

Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I recognize that this agreement with the Northern Safety Association allows them to go out and get some specialists in certain fields. I am told by the individuals from that organization and the department that this will actually be an agreement that will assist us in the issues that were recognized in the House here over the last couple of years, where there were some fines and so on levied by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission from workplace injuries and so on, and how they would try to focus in on the key areas that we’ve identified in the House; the hospitals, the corrections...

Thank you. The department is prepared to look at the cost of maintaining the stretch of highway from the ferry on the north side of the river to the old ice crossing. Right now the only program that we have available is a capital program, the Access Roads Program, and that would be something that would go to make sure that road doesn’t deteriorate and that would probably be summer work. But one of the main things where work is needed was to clear the snow. So we’re going to work with the community to, first of all, determine the cost of that because it’s not in any program, and then determine...

Thank you. The Department of Transportation has tried to find positions for individuals that were working on the ferry and the ice crossing. So at this point, the individuals that normally built the ice crossing will be given opportunities to assist on the Dempster ice crossing if they wish to do so. There were 13 employees on the ferry, most of them being casual employees, but three affected full-time employees. One retired. One of those positions was maintained by the department and another one had moved to run a different ferry, at Fort Simpson, actually. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we are aware that the Canadian Coast Guard is currently working on a place, so we will continue to engage them at that level.

Thank you. We spent $30,000 in 2012-13 and $30,000 this summer of ’13-14. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Minister’s statement I talked about the partnership between the Northern Safety Association and the Department of Human Resources. I would like to recognize the people from the Northern Safety Association: Chris Johnston, Chris Robb, and Sarah Johnson. Thank you.

Although I am prepared to provide the cost to the Member, I don’t have the cost of the partnership agreement between ourselves and Northern Safety here with me today, but I’m sure that I can get that very quickly.