Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my barging statement earlier, my question is to the Minister of Infrastructure.
My first question there, Mr. Speaker, what coordinations, communications, are underway between the marine transportation services department and the Canadian Coast Guard on navigation routes, depths, and channel markers? Thank you.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I always appreciate the opportunity to speak "a boat" MTS. However, we've been in close contact with coast guard over the last few months. Coast guard's been communicating with MTS. MTS has been trying to find out details on when they're able to put the buoys in. We've been working with ECC also to get water depths so that we're aware of what's going on. I've actually had some correspondence with the Minister for National Defence who's now in charge of Canadian Coast Guard to -- not put pressure but, you know, express to the Minister how important this is to the North and how important it is for the Canadian Coast Guard to get out there and put navigable buoys out there so that we can get our boats out there as soon as we can.
We have a commitment from the Canadian Coast Guard to get out there as quick as they can. For the first time, from my understanding, in a long time, that we actually have a date of June 13th that they're hitting the waterways and they're steaming down the river to put buoys in, and I assure you that our MTS team will be right behind them with the shipment. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for that information from the Minister.
My next question there, Mr. Speaker, is huge concerns from last year was, in particular, rates and the short notices for sailing, which really put challenges on the shipment of southern vendors to get their cargo to Hay River. Can the Minister share preparations or practices or mitigations to these two particular concerns. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the first part I will talk about is the rates. Earlier on this year, a team from MTS traveled the Sahtu area to speak to customers, and customers have been spoken to in all our shipping routes to talk about rates, you know, and the potential changes and impacts to improving them. So that's on the works.
Secondly, in regards to the sailing season last year, very unique situation of course. We had water that we were unsure of that would be able to operate our sailing of the boats. So we were concerned throughout the whole season. And as coast guard was able to put the buoys in, our boats followed them. And that was the point of getting the high water and making sure we were able to do it. However, they weren't sure at the very beginning. So, you know, we were able to get communication out as soon as we could. As soon as we found out Coast Guard was sailing, we were sailing. So we don't determine whether or not the waterways are navigable, Coast Guard does, and as soon as they give us the okay, MTS is right behind them.
The fortunate thing this year is everything is looking promising for water levels. So the snowpack in the mountains, the water levels in all the river systems, the Liard Basin, the Peace River, the Slave River, the Hay River, all the water levels are high, and that will definitely help the Mackenzie River with the flow so we can get our boats going up to the Arctic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for those replies. Those are just identifications of challenges that we face at the other end.
My last question there, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister, within his portfolio on the petroleum products division side, share some of the fuel volumes that are going to be barged down to the Sahtu communities. It really relieves the shipment over the winter road season as we get more volumes during the summer. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were fortunate with our winter haul again we were able to get a lot of fuel to the communities. But, again, we will take advantage of a good shipping season and haul more fuel. So we're forecasting deliveries to the Sahtu this year of -- to Fort Good Hope, 650,000 litres of gasoline and 3.4 million litres of diesel. And to Tulita, we're looking at about 300,000 litres of gasoline and 3.3 million litres of diesel. As always, these volumes are subject to change depending on demand and if there's a possibility of adding more, we always can. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
