Wally Schumann

For Members who aren't aware, on Bundle 1 from the BCIP money, we spent $8 million, roughly, on the Ingraham Trail. I am glad to say that, on Bundle 3, the approval that we had from the federal government here recently, we will have an additional $10 million that we will be able to spend on Ingraham Trail between 2019 to 2024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not aware of the brush cutting that took place out there recently, but I can certainly have a look into it. If there is an opportunity for residents along the Ingraham Trail to access some of that wood, we will certainly consider that. I will get back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member stated, we have students from Hay River, our growing population. He only read half of the people who are here. I would like to introduce 24 other participants: Kale Beck, Dawson Bourque, Tyler Brockway, Keira Coakwell, Zoe Cross, Adison Korotash, Breanna Makepeace, Emma Peters, James Graham, Brooke Delorey, Marie Buggins, Albert Jensen, Alanna Klause, Hayden Braun, Teegan Brockway, Lainey McPhee, Ava Pokiak, Dominic Sim, Payton Walters, Liam McIntyre, chaperone Colleen Cochrane and Darlene Lamb, and also Paulette West and Lynnette Moore, and also my CA...

I think one of the concepts around this whole idea of inviting these southern engineering students to come participate in the NWT is to expose them. No different than the tourism industry and no different than many people that we know in the NWT, they come here, they think they are going to stay for a day or two, and some of them end up spending a lifetime here.

We are hoping that this is an opportunity to recruit some of these people and, at the same time, exposing them to the NWT and the people of the Northwest Territories and the challenges that we have. We welcome the opportunity to hire...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Infrastructure fully understands the engineering and project delivery in the North, of challenges that we have around that, and one way we feel to be successful is we expose young engineers and technical students in their formative years to real life northern issues, and they get fully involved and be part of it.

We have arrangements with southern universities, a number of them. I could probably name them all, but there are four or five of them: University of Calgary, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier, and the Royal Military, as the Member has stated today...

As I have said, I have directed our staff to go in there and meet with the community and do an assessment. Once that assessment is complete, a consultation with the residents and whatever recommendations come out of that going forward, I can keep the Member abreast of the timelines when the improvements will be made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As soon as we have Transport Canada approval to be in operation, the ferries will start operating. We are hoping, as I said, that probably the Fort McPherson ferry will be the first one in operation, and hopefully by May 28th or June 1st at the very latest would be the Tsiigehtchic ferry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to make this quick and try to get some more questions in for everybody. The Louis Cardinal, this year we were doing paint and deck repairs, under way all this week. We installed four brand new engines in the Louis Cardinal this season during the winter. The department is working with Transport Canada to complete the vessel inspections on that and inspect the new engines and the hull to be conducted today with the federal government.

On the Abraham Francis, there are the ramps that are going to be replaced. One of them has been completed already, and we are...

As all Members are well aware, we announced all three of these together. The 2030 Climate Change Strategic Framework, the 2030 Energy Strategy, and the Petroleum Strategy, as they are all linked together, were publicly released here in the Assembly on May 1, 2018.

Various federal officials have already been made aware of it. To date, the GNWT has not received any formal feedback from any federal Ministers at this point, but the response that we have had from federal people so far has been very positive, and they are pleased that we are doing our part to meet the Pan-Canadian Framework targets.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The 227-kilotonne reduction anticipated from the Taltson expansion is the premise of hydro generation and transmission lines to displace any diesel power generation in the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories identified this priority as part of our response to the federal government's Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, along with other energy and transportation priorities. Some of the work that we plan to do includes defining the potential market, capital costs, transmission line routing, and finalizing a business case...