Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the honourable Member that all concerns brought forward, whether it is in this House or not, are taken seriously by my officials and by myself and followed up on. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. I heard three questions, Mr. Ng. Just to remind the Member from Mackenzie Delta that he also used up his final supplementary. Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in following with rules of this House, all petitions and written questions are responded to within the rules of this House and are responded to accordingly. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the airport in Yellowknife, there is a service road that is on the airport area that runs parallel to Highway 3 which is a public road and also it is the main public access that goes to the airport. The service road is for the use of the airport operations and business. It is not really there intended to be a public road because there is also, again, there is Highway 3 which is the main public access to the airport. We have two routes into the airport, but the one in question is the public service road on the airport property which the department has seen over the last five years that there were eight collisions that happened on this service road with property damages to the vehicles, as well as there were a number of less serious traffic incidents on this road. Fortunately, there has been no injuries in terms of these minor accidents or major accidents.

With the increase of activity at the airport, which the honourable Member mentioned, there is also increase in traffic on the service road and to go by the department's mandate having safety in the Department of Transportation, then the department looked at this situation and decided to put stop signs on this access road rather than putting speed bumps on there. This decision was made in October of 1997, to put three stops signs on this service road to slow down the higher speed public traffic that was going through there very rapidly. There is also a mix of traffic of the slower moving service and utility vehicles which are just baggage cargo, carts, fuel trucks, maintenance equipment that were also using the service road and it was potentially a very hazardous condition there. So as a result, the department had decided to put these stops signs there to improve the safety standards there. Now, the department is satisfied that we have improved the safety of the local airport traffic using the service road and at the same time we have encouraged the higher speed traffic to use Highway 3 access to the airport which is intended to be used by the public. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that information, there was lots of it there. He has told us that it was intended for the business owners, and I am just wondering what consultation there was with the business owners along that route? The owners that I have talked to have informed me that they had not been consulted. Was

there some type of consultation with the owners as to whether this was beneficial to them or has the department just decided that this will be good for the business owners along that route? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has been looking at improving the safety on that service road which is on the airport property and for the benefit of the business owners that no serious accidents happen on there because of the increase of the economic development at the airport. The department had decided that the best solution would be to put these stop signs in. I have to check with the department to see if there was any type of consultation with the stakeholders along that service road. I do not know, in detail, exactly how that came about. I will have to get back to the Member on that part of the question. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister told us earlier that they had in the last five years, I believe, eight accidents along that stretch of road. There were no fatalities. On the Mackenzie Highway, we have had fatalities. We have had accidents all over the place and we do not stick stops signs up there. We would get RCMP or law enforcement to initiate some procedure to ensure that people do slow down by monitoring it. Did the Minister consider some type of measure like that, rather than putting up stop signs for solving the problem for speed by using something that was totally unnecessary? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is necessary to make sure that there are safety measures put in place on the airport property, which the service road is on. There is also a main road into the airport which is Highway 3 where the people wanting to rush to the airport, they could use that route which is intended to be, but the service road is for use of the slower moving vehicles that service the airport. If you mix slower moving, huge vehicles with faster vehicles; you know we have a hazardous situation. So, I think there is a need to put some safety measures on that service road. Thank you.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister informed this House that he was not sure whether consultation had taken place with the owners of the property and the businesses along at the airport strip. Will the Minister consider if he finds out that there has not been consultation taken place; will he instruct his officials to receive that input from the business owners along that route, and if they find out that the signs are detrimental to their business and they do not wish to have them there; will the Minister, after that input, if it is negative towards the signs, consider removing them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the increased activity at the airport, the potential for some major accidents to happen along that service road is increasing. The mandate of this department is to make sure that the public transportation areas are in a safe transportation way so that has to be taken into consideration as well. Yes, I will check with my department to see whether there was consultation done with the people and the businesses that are along the service road, and I will get back to the Member as to whether there was consultation done or not. Thank you.