Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following documents entitled “Inuvialuit Water Board Budget 2016-2017,” “Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the Year Ended March 31, 2016” and the “NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program 2015-2016 Annual Report.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this is Small Business Week in Canada. Over 90 per cent of the NWT’s business is being defined as small businesses. This important sector provides employment opportunities for our people, the economic diversity to balance the ups and down of the resource economy and makes our communities great places to live. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment helps create the economic environment NWT entrepreneurs and small business owners need to invest, take risks and prosper. We do so with targeted policies, programs and funding initiatives, and in partnership with...

As the Member knows, we have limited funds. We would spend the $1.5 million versus the $10 million it would cost to replace that ferry, and plus in the short time you just don’t go buy a ferry off the shelf. They just don’t have them sitting there at the store to buy. We would have to order this thing. It would probably take a couple of number of years to put into service. So the short-term fix would be to reactivate the Merv Hardie.

As I've said, we use the management tools to have a look at all our assets and stuff moving forward. As far as a planning study goes, the only thing we've been doing so far on there to -- we know where we are for maintenance and where the vessel is at and how much life is left in the vessel. What we continue to do on an ongoing basis to make sure we have adequate capacity for the volumes of traffic that are on that river system, and we continue to say that the data that's coming in that we meet these criteria to service the region, and I don't believe that at this time that I can commit to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked me a couple of times previously to do a constituency tour and in all fairness to him I was booked up solid. As long as I have enough lead time I have no problem doing a tour in his region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe there's two questions; I'll answer both of them. First of all, the returning of phone calls to NUL. The first phone call I believe to the Premier was based on the Hay River franchise, and that's in arbitration right now, and I wouldn't be doing anyone any good to engage in a conversation when that process is going on. My other recollection is that ATCO phoned the Premier about getting out of their franchise agreement for ATCO gas in Inuvik. So that's the two phone calls; first part of his question.

The second part, NUL is free to any time submit material to the Government of the...

Mr. Speaker, the department data indicates that the Louis Cardinal is sufficient and it meets the adequate needs of the capacity of the region right now, and we continue to track that with the data received on the volume of traffic on the Louis Cardinal.

The other thing we do, and the Member stated, we're throwing money around with capital investments. We just replaced the bottom of the Louis Cardinal in the last cycle year, in the last season, and we're about to rebuild the engines on the Louis Cardinal this coming winter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is continually working to improve the transportation system. Available resources rely on asset management tools which we use continually on an ongoing basis to make strategic operational decisions around all our assets. But moving forward, we have to maximize what we have with the limited funding we have, and that makes choices pretty tough sometimes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With respect to this northern contractor and the employment of residents in Fort Liard on this contract, I'm glad to report to the House that almost 31 per cent of the workforce in June was from the community, 40 per cent in July and 43 per cent in August, and that includes some residents from Nahanni Butte as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation uses every opportunity to maximize northern involvement in residents and delivering programs and services to upgrade and maintain all the highways in the Northwest Territories including the Liard Highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.