Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Yes, they are individually negotiated. Much of it is contingent upon the volume of traffic, et cetera. It is a fairly flexible approach to hours of operation, I believe.

Mahsi. Mr. Koe.

If customers in a community want to extend or change hours on a specific weekend, is that negotiable? Can that be done?

Mr. Minister.

You have to remember, Mr. Chairman, that we are under contractual agreements with contractors to run the ferries. I would suspect that like a pilot of an airplane, a pilot of a boat has to work within certain hours. It would all be contingent, I suspect, upon what back-up crews they have, et cetera. I am not sure how much flexibility we would have. Mr. Gamble could probably answer that more directly that I can.

Mr. Gamble. Okay, Mr. Koe.

I will give an example. In the Delta, every June or July, there is the midway lake festival and it is a 24 hour festival in the foothills. There is a great deal of traffic from Inuvik and Fort McPherson which has to use both crossings, but the main one is the Peel River crossing, and it closes at midnight. There does not seem to be any flexibility to extend those hours. As I say, it is at times like that when there is a high volume of traffic that warrants some consideration. I wonder how or if this can happen, and if hours can be extended if you know before hand.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I do not see any difficulty when you have a unique situation like that, such as a special event which is going to generate a lot of traffic. I think the only condition I would suggest is that we be given sufficient notice so we can organize it properly. I do not anticipate a problem there. If it has been in the past, I am sure we can issue a directive to imply that. I would say the principle condition would be to have good advance notice so we can make the appropriate arrangements, but I do not see a problem.

Qujannamiik. Marine services, total O and M, $4.019 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Highway Operations

Thank you. Highway operations, total O and M, $19.231 million. Mr. Whitford.

Qujannamiik. Mr. Minister.

We have 1,800 kilometres of winter road in place. No, it does not include the Fort Chipewyan road.

Mahsi. Mr. Whitford.

Mr. Todd, would you inquire into the matter with the other jurisdictions?

I understand, Mr. Chairman, that the efforts of the previous Minister were highly successful in acquiring funding to do this. It was a one shot deal. I certainly do not want to be harangued for that particular road. Every effort will be made to come to a satisfactory agreement that will enable this road to go forward. However, at this time I am not in a position to say whether it will or not until we try to come to some agreement.

Thank you. Mr. Whitford.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

I want to assure the Member that we did have, and I understand it was done under the previous Minister, a commitment to meet with the federal and Alberta people in an effort to try to resolve that this spring. Again, I cannot say this is going to be resolved because negotiations are under way. It is our intention to try to come to some timely conclusion to these discussions so we can meet the winter road requirements early rather than late as has happened in the past.