Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, on the Resolute Bay air terminal building. Just for the information of the Members in the House, when the Arctic A airport was transferred last summer, there was quite a bit of dollars that were transferred. There was a $2,500,000 that was transferred from the federal government for the replacement of the Resolute Bay air terminal building. This was a one-time funding, rather than base funding, and was added to the grant from Canada, to the Department's budget over two years, for 1996/97, and 1997/98. An additional 1.6 million dollars would be recovered from the federal government, if it was decided to incorporate a flight service station into the air terminal building.
This is the 1.6, it is an additional one. If the federal government decided to go with the flight service station. In the 1996/97 to the year 2001 capital plan, the department assumed that the project would include the flight service station. We put it in our plans at first, and profiled the project over four years to a total project of $4,520,000. This was in our original plan, when we thought the flight service station would be in it.
When we were implementing the project for 1996/97, there was a delay. Because of the inability to get confirmation of the requirement of the flight service station from the federal government, we do not know if the federal government is going to go with the flight service station or not. They have not said yes or no. So it is hard to determine at this point in time. If they said no, and we build it, the big one, then it will be difficult for us to recover the 1.6 million dollars. Because of the need to undertake the planning for the site of the entire airport property, as a result less work will be done this year, than was originally planned.
In addition, the department has decided to proceed without the inclusion of the flight service station, thereby reducing the overall cost of the project. This is what went into the decision, whether to have the flight service station in, or not. The honourable Member is right, the federal government is responsible for the flight service station. They have not told us whether they want it in there or not. If they say yes, they want to have it in there, then we will have an opportunity to recover the 1.6 million dollars that was in the budget. But at this point in time, this new corporation is going to take over, and they have not determined whether they want a flight service station or not. So we cannot put in our plan at this point in time. I am told by the department that the flight service station, if it is determined at a later date, that they would require that, then the federal government and this new corporation would have to plan and build it on their own. When the original plan was to put the airport terminal building, and to have provision in there to have a flight service station, we thought this was going to go ahead, and the federal government was going to approve it. But at this point in time, this has not happened. So we had to change our plans to accommodate for that. Thank you.