Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the honourable Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark, asked about the recent failures of the runway lighting system at the Gjoa Haven airport.
The existing lighting system has become unreliable and the department will remedy the situation immediately. Our small communities depend on reliable air transportation services and anything less is unacceptable.
I would like to tell the Member that the Department of Transportation has acquired a temporary replacement lighting system for the runway. The replacement system is being tested this week in Yellowknife and will be sent to Gjoa Haven next week for installation. The department expects to have this temporary replacement system installed and operational by the 1st of March.
By way of explanation, Mr. Speaker, the existing system was installed by Transport Canada in 1984 when the technical standards of the day did not require protective conduit for buried electrical cables. This protective conduit may not have been necessary in southern Canada, but with the freeze-thaw cycle in our northern locations, the standard has proven inadequate and caused many maintenance problems.
The Department of Transportation made repairs to the lighting system this past summer and hoped they would keep the system working a few more years until it could install a new airfield lighting system scheduled for 1998. Unfortunately, the system has deteriorated much faster this winter than the department had expected.
In any case, the department will install the new runway lighting system over the next two weeks. I certainly regret any inconvenience or distress the Member or his constituents may have experienced as a result of the recent lighting failures. I can assure him that the department will restore safe and reliable service at the airport as soon as is humanly possible. Mahsi.
---Applause