Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This highway gets more money than any other highway in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

The department has investigated the advantages and disadvantages of doing this to the runways across the Northwest Territories. One of the cons of this whole thing is, if we were to even do this, say, in the northern region, put chipseal down and the chipseal peels up, it could cause delays on those runways and disrupt service to them; but the other side of it is the cost of the equipment that would be needed to repair these. We're not going to go out and buy paving equipment for each community to be able to address this thing.

Based on performance around that, Transport Canada does not treat...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All three proponents that have been selected that are short-listed for this project are going to have Tlicho companies involved in the construction of this road. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Tabled Document 456-18(2), NWT Oil and Gas Annual Report 2016" and "Tabled Document 457-18(2), Northwest Territories Geological Survey Strategic Plan 2017-2022." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are always committed to improving our communications, as I said in this House on a number of occasions, to update residents and tourists in particular on this section of road in the wintertime, which is, as I've mentioned in the House, how the numbers are increasing in the use of this road, winter operators and general public who also use this highway. We will continue to work on our communications plan.

We have our digital signage that's out at the entrance of Highway No. 4; that will be placed there again once the season gets going. We have Twitter. We use radio. We use our website to give...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue to do extensive safety and structural improvements on Highway No. 4. As most Members of this House know, we have invested roughly $2 million per year on ongoing reconstruction of this section of road.

To update Members, this year we have completed road widening, structural strengthening, drainage improvements, resurfacing. Application of chipseal and guard rail installation were needed on kilometre 46 to 49. We have also, like I said, done impressive amounts of chipseal, of overlay, this year from kilometre 7 to 22, along with our ongoing patching of potholes...

I'm not aware of this concern. The bridge is built within normal sloping operating grades and, I suspect anyone who has a Class 1 driver's licence operating should have the skills to navigate the slope of that bridge.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As part of our bridge monitoring inspection regime, we've been closely monitoring the side slopes on the approaches and the embankment movements of the Deh Cho Bridge. Some longitudinal cracks have appeared and we've been observing them on the bridge approaches, and as a proactive and preventive measure of our ongoing part of our maintenance program, we're working to stabilize these approaches and embankments to stop future cracking of the longitudinal cracks that are appearing.

As to the contractor that's on-site, they are called GeoStabilization International. This was...

Mr. Speaker, our government has committed in its mandate to supporting exploration and the mining sector. It is the lifeblood of our economy. Our people and businesses are innovative, self-sufficient, and resilient, and want to do their part to contribute to a strong Northwest Territories. We need the kind of well-paying, long-term jobs that come with sustainable economic development, and our government is working towards economic self-determination for all NWT residents.

Our strategic approach to unlocking the potential of responsible mining and exploration in the NWT is defined in our Mineral...

Highway patrol meets and regularly trains with other enforcement agencies. The department participated in a blitz together on a regular basis with these other agencies. In particular, recently we just did a bison awareness check stop both with ENR and the RCMP to check both commercial and public traffic on the highway, and we will continue to look at opportunities to collaborate with all enforcement agencies in the future.

As I said, we will continue to do our inspections on the winter road this coming season around the heavy truck traffic in particular to make sure people are well aware of the...