Wally Schumann

At all our runways, we already have a number of stockpiles of gravel specific to airport runways, so this is already in place. With an effective maintenance plan in place and a drainage management plan in place, this helps extend the life of all the runways in the Northwest Territories. We also have an EK35 program which we put on all the runways, the gravel ones, in the Northwest Territories to help tighten up and stabilize and bind the gravel that's on the runway and keep the dust down.

To specifically answer the question of what we're doing in Nunakput, in the 2018-2019 capital plan we have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To give you a high level on it, there is $67 million allocated for this road this year. We are still going through the environmental assessment process. We have to get the permits in place once that is done. Most of the cost is going to be around engineering and construction of this in the first year, depending on who is selected as the proponent to build this section of highway. Some people might escalate the speed of construction of road versus the others, and there are also some soft costs internally tied to it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We can certainly share the resurfacing, distress repairs, and the drainage improvements with the Member for sure, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to update the Member, because I know this Oscar Creek bridge has come up a couple of times. In 2017-2018 we're going to do pre-engineered design for a new foundation and access, and tender and award that. Then in 2018-2019 we are going to construct and move the existing bridge to the Mackenzie Valley highway alignment and proceed with that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll have to take that under advisement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We cannot release those names publicly until after the first meeting, but we can let committee know the names of those people. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This stuff was put together internally, and we will get those figures together and present them to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, on the crosswalk right outside here by the Assembly, by the Nova Hotel, that should all be installed by November 1st. The crosswalk should be put into place. We're in ongoing discussions with the City of Yellowknife on them taking over this section of highway, but we are also trying with the City of Yellowknife to figure out a sidewalk along this section of highway, and those discussions are ongoing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, we are on the road with our consultation on this. We went to the regional centres, but this initiative that we put forward, we have an extremely important Web portal with interaction where anyone from within the industry or the Northwest Territories can interact with the department and answer a number of questions and put their thoughts forward. They have the mail-in option. They can email us. They can phone the department and we'll have someone discuss these options with them. That's our commitment, and we will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is right. The Buffalo River bridge is almost completed. The tender for the Hay River bridge will be coming out shortly for its procurement for the rehabilitation of that bridge. Frank Channel bridge has been deferred. We are thinking about having another look at that after we went out to public consultation, and there were a number of concerns about us rehabilitating that bridge and having a full canopy on it as the way it is right now; it is a bottleneck of the whole system of anything coming north of Yellowknife, and we are having another look at it. I think...