On the marine services, we have the Liard crossing and the Ndulee crossing and I understand that the same level of quick service will be provided to Fort Liard and Ndulee crossings as at Tsiigehtchic. I guess the question here is that I just want to be clear that at the Fort Simpson/Liard crossing, the crossing is open at 8:00 am so the ferry will be ready to cross at 8:00 am. You'll go across the river and you'll come back at 8:30 am, for example, and then back again at 9:00 am. Is that the intention of it? What exactly do you mean by scheduled service?

Yes, that's exactly what we mean. I can provide the Member, whose constituencies are directly affected by this small policy change, with a schedule of what's going to take place. Mr. Antoine is correct, that is how we would see it. If it's okay with you, Mr. Chairman, I would like to suggest that I provide the honourable Members directly affected with the planned schedule for the ferries in those areas. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. A question for the Minister of Transportation. Again, this is going to be change; I know it's small change in the way this ferry's going to operate but it's going to have an impact. It would be good if this information is provided to the public as soon as we can in the form of public announcements, posters, perhaps even different ads that the government may put up. Is it the intention of this

department to provide that information right away if they have not yet done so?

It's our intent to do that, Mr. Chairman. We recognize the importance of this infrastructure and the fact that we need to communicate clearly with the users. I think it's a reasonable position that we're taking so it is our intent to advise the communities and the users to the best of our ability in the coming months and, as I said earlier, I am prepared to provide the honourable Members directly affected with as much detail as it relates to schedules, as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My final question is once the ferry is put on a regular schedule, in terms of emergencies -- for example, we have vehicle accidents on the highways -- if ambulances, fire trucks or police vehicles need to be sent across would they make provisions for allowing them to be taken across as quickly as possible, if that's the case? Thank you.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Highway Operations

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is the area where I've been raising a lot of concerns. The drop in the highway maintenance, is that according to the transportation strategy? I know that this government had adopted the transportation strategy that was put in place by the previous government and they're following it quite well for paving the road between the Alberta border and Yellowknife and they're still carrying on this massive expenditure to improve this highway system. The strategy was to maintain a level of safe highway in the Northwest Territories for the infrastructure development. I just wanted to ask if this move to decrease the level of the highway maintenance operation is according to the transportation strategy.

No, the reductions in this O and M budget were determined through the OPPLAN reductions. That's what this is about. The paving, et cetera, that Mr. Antoine alludes to in the plan we have, I believe is all under capital. This is an OPPLAN reduction exercise we went through months ago as it relates to the O and M at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This highway maintenance operation is going to cause a lot of concern as the highway tends to deteriorate in the summertime as well as in the wintertime when it snows and blows and if the graders don't get out there right away, we're going to have problems with safety and problems with lack of maintenance. I just wanted to see if the Minister could clarify this. This is the first time his department is going to do it. Mr. Todd is not very familiar with the highway system in the west here, especially in my area. If there are problems in that area, how is his department going to be dealing with it because this is a new move that his department is making? Thank you.

I do recognize the frustration with the OPPLAN reductions that we've made here. Hopefully I've explained why we've done them, so I won't go through that again. What I will say is I've instructed the department, recognizing that this particular activity of our budget is taking the biggest hit. I do recognize the legitimate concerns with respect to the size of the reductions that Mr. Antoine has alluded to. So I've instructed the department to monitor very carefully this summer the impact of it. If we get into a difficult situation, I want to assure him that we'll have to try to address it at that time.

But I had to make an arrangement to cut $2.6 million out of the budget, as instructed by the Finance Minister. I tried to reduce it in an equitable basis based upon the total dollars in each activity. Unfortunately, this is a large fiscal activity within the Department of Transportation, it had to take its appropriate percentage cut. It's not something I enjoyed doing, but it's something I had no choice but to do at this time.

I want to assure Mr. Antoine and others that the department is fully aware of my concern and certainly of Mr. Antoine's concern as it relates to safety and as it relates to the quality of the roads. I will try to assure him by saying we will be monitoring the impact very carefully. If things don't go well, then we'll have to revisit it and I'll have to go back to Cabinet and see what steps I can take. But at this time, that's what our plan of action is. Thank you.

I just want to get some clarification. The highway systems, for example, from the Fort Providence junction to Fort Simpson, then we have a junction at a place called checkpoint. From there it goes down towards BC, past Fort Liard we have Highway No. 7. The road goes right into

Simpson. Then we have another extension from Fort Simpson into Wrigley. Can the Minister explain the level of service? For each highway there is a certain category of operation for each section. If he could tell us how the highway system is viewed in terms of the category and how much each category will drop and what it means in terms of the types of services that will be provided now with the cutbacks that are being implemented by his department. Thank you.