Wally Schumann

This information already has been shared with Health and Social Services, and I believe it was also shared with the Member of the 17th Assembly, and I will make sure that any information that was shared previously gets to the Member of this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was during the phase one process of the Health Authority's new building in Fort Simpson. On the location of the lot, there was ground penetrating radar done, and there were graves discovered on this property. With ongoing consultation with the municipality and the Band of Fort Simpson, the planning process was moving forward and with ongoing discussions with them we're figuring out what's the best way forward with putting the fence in and what we're going to do with the grave sites moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. ITI continues to advance initiatives and investments in supporting the NWT film sector. As of recently, they just had a gala year with their new release of the Midnight Sun feature, which I suspect a number of Members in the Assembly have attended, hopefully. I was out of town so I couldn't make it, but kudos go out to them on that. We will continue to work with them on any initiatives and marketing stuff forward to help this industry grow in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following eight documents entitled "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 109-18(2): Highway No. 1 Maintenance," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 131-18(2): Building Canada Plan Bundle No. 2," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 132-18(2): Hours of Operations for Fort Simpson Ferry Service," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 244-18(2): Information on the Fort Simpson Ferry Service," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 269-18(2): Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway," "Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 292-18(2): Highway No. 7 Resurfacing Contract," "Follow-up...

To address the bridge cost to start with, that would be a significant cost; I couldn't tell the Member exactly what that would be. We would have to take on a planning study and look into what the infrastructure would cost for that, and even if we did do that, that would be a significant amount of money as we know what the previous bridges in the Northwest Territories have cost. We'd have to go back to Infrastructure Canada to assist with that, and under the fiscal pressures that this government is seeing it's probably something that would have to be rolled out in a 20-year study of our needs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The one thing I can convey to the Member is that even though we are looking at doing this as a budget reduction for the next fiscal year, this year coming up that we will continue to have the winter ferry operation for this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has been looking at this very operation as a possible budget reduction, just because of the significant cost of it, and part of this conversation has been talking LNG and propane suppliers and the grocery suppliers of the Beaufort Delta region. From the conversations taking place at present, there is a significant chance that the closure of this ferry would not interrupt the services of either the LNG or propane delivery or the food delivery to the Beaufort Delta region. The department has had a number of conversations with these people, and we continue...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled “Connecting Us: Four-Year Action Plan.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Upon implementing the recycling of electronics earlier this year, we have an advisory group that’s going to sit down within the one-year period of this implementation. They will be reviewing the policy and bringing recommendations back to the department, which we can share with the Members.

As I’ve said, the Public Works put out the tender; there’s a BIP process that’s applied to all tenders of these bids. If the southern contractor states that they’re going to have 60 per cent that the Member has alluded to in part of their bidding contract that has nothing to do with the BIP process of this contract. We can follow up with the Member and have a discussion on the number that he’s talking about, but Public Works and Services applies the numbers to the tender process.