Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the road between Rae and Yellowknife is the next project that is in the plan for the Department of Transportation to begin reconstruction of this section. At the present time, the plan is to do a section closest to Rae and as well as a section starting from Yellowknife. We will continue to do different sections until they link up. We have a 10-year plan to do that. However, as I stated earlier, part of the highway strategy is to take a closer look at that section, and perhaps, over the next couple of years, we may be able to make another arrangement to try and speed up construction in that section.

Yes, the plans of the department are to ensure funding is in place to continue to do the work on that section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask another question regarding the winter road. Could the Minister give us any indication as to how he sees whether Robinson's Trucking is prepared to open a road to the Old Colomac Mines or if there are any future connections to the winter road going into Snare Lakes this coming winter? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Rabesca. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my understanding is that the Colomac Mine is going to be shut down. The only reason for Robinson Trucking to go towards the Colomac Mine was to resupply the mine. Once it shuts down, they will no longer be required to go towards Colomac Mine. For clarification, the Snare Lake

portion I believe, is about 30 kilometres that connects into the Colomac road and as a result we are able to have a winter road using the majority of the Colomac road to open up into Snare Lake.

However, now that the mine is planning to be shut, and there may not be a winter road up there any more, this area we have to look at. I am told we work with other departments, Public Works and Services and the Housing Corporation and perhaps Power Corporation to open up the road. In the past we were able to open up the road if there was a significant amount of resupply to go into the community of Snare Lake. All that has to be taken into consideration.

So, I guess at this point in time, my answer is that we do not have any plans, at this point in time, to put in a winter road into Snare Lake. Thank you.

Thank you. On the list of members wanting to speak, I have Mr. Rabesca who is on the table. I have Mr. Picco, I have Mr. Henry. Mr. Rabesca, you have a couple more. Question number three, Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. However I would like to ask another question regarding the winter road connections in between some communities like Rae Lakes and Wha Ti. I was wondering how soon would the department be able to look at opening the winter road connecting to both communities since in the past, the Robinson Trucking used to open up the road earlier. Now that they are not opening the road to Colomac by the sounds of it, I was wondering how soon would the department be able to open up a winter road connecting Wha Ti to Rae Lakes and how soon would they be shutting it down in the future? February or March.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. When a private company like Robinson's Trucking open up a winter road, they get a land use permit from Northern Affairs to do that, and therefore, they do not follow regulations that we do, as the department of Transportation. We use the regulations for safety purposes, and we make sure the ice conditions are right before we start putting winter roads into the honourable Member's constituency of Wha Ti and Rae Lakes. Therefore, depending on the weather conditions this year, if the conditions are right then the construction of the winter road will commence sooner.

It is unknown to me at this time when the exact dates for beginning to build winter roads are going to be. This year it seems we have colder weather sooner, and if those conditions allow the ice to freeze to the required thickness, then construction will probably begin as soon as it is safe to proceed. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Rabesca. On the list I have Mr. Picco and Mr. Henry. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and good evening. Mr. Chairman, just a couple of questions to the Department of Transportation to the Minister. Most of my dealings with the Minister have been good. The Minister has come to Iqaluit on a couple of occasions and has done a small tour of the town and looked at the break water in Iqaluit that he has helped to facilitate, and I appreciate that. One of the concerns I have with the Department of Transportation seeing the number of negotiated contracts that have been done with the department. It seems to me to be mostly on road work. I wonder if the Minister could explain the reason for those types of contracts?

Thank you. The Minister can afford to travel. He is the Minister of Transportation, that is why he travels. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the west mainly where the highways are, the practice is to, there are different sections of the highway that is maintained by negotiated contract. This is done to provide the aboriginal corporations to gain experience in that field, to develop expertise, perhaps do some training and to provide income to the local community and keep the revenues at the community level in the region. I think it has been beneficial in the area where those negotiations have been going on for some time.

However, we also have some sections that are publicly tendered, and we have some section that are maintained by our own forces. We have a mixture of different ways of maintaining the highway. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Picco.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. In a lot of respects, negotiated contracts in smaller communities do make sense where you have a select market, and you try to bring down the economies of scale. On the road development and road paving, one of the most expensive pieces of equipment, of course, is the asphalt plant itself, asphalt plant on roads. I wonder does the department have asphalt plants under the department itself or when they give the negotiated contracts out or whenever there is paving to be done, is that part of the contract to allow the company to buy an asphalt plant? How does that work? Because I know in my community, we have had to delay paving for three years now because we could not afford to bring in an asphalt plant that costs something like $2.5 million. I wonder how that works?

Thank you. The honourable Minister for Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the reconstruction of Highway 3 between Fort Providence and Rae which we tried to complete this year, has been going on for a number of years. The nature of these contracts were all publicly tendered. This last summer for example we have two sections that two different companies were successful bidders. They are where the contractors make their own arrangements to provide their own equipment, including the asphalt plants. So, these are privately owned and the department does not own this type of equipment. We do not need to have it on hand. We do not use it often. Whenever it is required, then it is part of the public tender process. Thank you.

Thank you. Question number three, Mr. Picco.

One of the disappointments I have had over the last two years with the Department of Transportation was in

regard to the reduction and then the elimination in funding for the emergency response services in my community. Basically, the department came back with reports saying we did not need the ERS because of the federal regulations disqualifying us from having those. After saying that, I understand now that some of the major international airlines like United Airlines have had some concern with the removal of ERS that we were not privy to when the decision was made. I wonder has the Minister heard about this, and if he has, has he directed his departmental officials to look at it further and maybe just give us an overview on that situation? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. The honourable Minister for Transportation Mr Antoine.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman in regard to the Emergency Response Services, the decision was, I could say, imposed upon us by Transport Canada according to their regulations, and the way they determined if the ERS is required at certain airports.

Quite a few airports in the Northwest Territories had the ERS and according to these regulations and the traffic flow that went into the airport; they had a certain limit that if the traffic flow is below a certain limit then they deemed the ERS was not required. As a result, we tried to work with the Municipality of Iqaluit. I think we tried the best we could to find different solutions to that problem. I do not know; we tried the best we can.

In regard to the major airline that the honourable Member mentioned, I am not too familiar with that particular situation, but I know we have been trying to work with the military to provide an emergency response service, and perhaps if we continue to work with them, we might come to some solution that solves this situation. Thank you.

Mr. Picco, how do you want to use your final question?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his work on the emergency response service file because, indeed, he answered a lot of questions and calls from me and met with the community and sent officials over. It is still a major concern of mine that the emergency response service is not in place at the airport. I will take this opportunity to speak to the Minister about this at a later date, not today. My final followup question on the departments under the Minister's jurisdiction is with regard to his other hat, Department of Aboriginal Affairs. I believe, it is still under the Minister. Under the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, a lot of questions and comments have occurred over the continuing, ongoing self-government talks. One of the questions that we had was for the Minister to look at taking those different pots of money that are under the Executive and that is under the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and under different departments and put them all under one hat, as it were, to help out with those types of self-government talks, mostly here in the west. I wonder if the Minister has made any movement on that area? Thank you.