Wally Schumann

I would love to update the House on this particular question. We have met with SSi Micro and, actually, our staff have gone to the community of Fort Providence to understand the system that SSi actually has in place right now and to discuss the potential for integration of a microgrid into the technologies into the system. We are interested in learning a lot more about what SSi has to offer, about their proposal and the potential of their graphite battery, specifically what they have proposed to use as an energy recovery and disbursement system in their system. We will continue to work with...

All engineers and technicians within the department have a professional obligation to keep track of the latest developments in their fields of expertise. We sponsor regular training and host a major conference to address current issues, including climate change. We also send our experts to conferences and working groups with their counterparts to review climate change issues at the national and regional levels, and we undertake risk analysis on all our major projects to ensure climate change resilience is addressed and also incorporated into climate consideration into all our operational...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are tracking the water levels carefully and monitoring changes. We have been in contact with the federal government about dredging to maintain navigational channels, which I talked about yesterday. For ice and ferry crossings, we have already converted some permanent bridges, and over the long term will continue to work toward converting them to permanent crossings. In the meantime, we have looked at alternative landing and crossing roads which may extend or stabilize the seasons.

What I can tell the Member is that the government has over $330 million to invest in electricity infrastructure in the Northwest Territories going forward. That is going to result in more construction jobs, local jobs, and suppliers where it's possible. In addition, the GNWT is investing over $31 million in the Low Carbon Economy Fund that we announced here earlier this year, which will leverage over $70 million over the next three years. This will also support the local builders and contractors and suppliers who do energy retrofits and install renewable energy in the system. Fifty-percent...

With respect to dredging and waterworks, they are extremely difficult to get approvals for. We know that. The current amount of debris and silt, as I said, that are in the river carries, I have been advised that any dredging operation would be of minimal value. I think I have mentioned that in this House before. For those of you who have been on the Liard River Ferry in the summer time, it is a very dirty river, and dredging might be of very minimal value, doing that. We do know that the low water in the channel that we used last fall, as I have said, with that gravel bar presents a problem...

As this whole House knows, the travelling public and safety is number one for us. I will have to confirm with our staff where we are at on both of those ferries and get back to the Member. However, as we've updated this House in previous years, going forward the general public and Members of this Assembly need to be well aware that the river conditions can change drastically. We have had low water already this year, but, due to spring melt coming out of the mountains, things can change. Last year, that caused problems, particularly in Fort McPherson because of all of the debris that was coming...

I am not aware of there being any delays on this. We historically had these ferries in by June 2nd, so I believe we are on schedule. As I said, I can check into the Transport Canada inspection issue and see if there is an issue and relay that to the Member.

Certainly, I can follow up with that. I would like to add one more comment, I guess. It's up to the SSI if they want to have youth involvement. Myself, I can reach out to the SSI leadership and have these discussions on possibilities of having youth involvement in this, and I would encourage the Member and all Members to encourage the SSI leadership maybe to include future leadership people or youth people who want to be involved in this thing going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The MoU that was signed between SSI and ourselves, the Sahtu Secretariat, was intended to formalize the working relationship between parties on the advancement of the Mackenzie Valley Highway through the environmental and regulatory reviews. The MoU provides for the creation of a working group with members of working group to be appointed by the SSI and the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure. Each party to the MoU is responsible for selecting its own members to the working group. SSI is responsible for appointing its own members to the...

As I said, currently, phase 1 is scheduled to be completed by end of May. That is phase 1, and we will be notifying the public when we are doing the other stuff. Neither the Yellowknife airport nor the Department of Infrastructure has received any complaints on this matter. We are not aware of any flights being delayed or any passengers who have missed their flights. Travellers have cooperated and have been arriving early to avoid congestion. We have been monitoring the passenger flow, and the interim system has been functioning well.