Mr. Picco, when you talk about a quorum in this House you are speaking for the entire room. I will ring the bell on your behalf. The Chair recognizes a quorum. Do you want to go into quorum now? Thank you. 1998-99 Main Estimates, transportation activity summary, corporate services, operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance, $8.141 million. Agreed? Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you for reminding me. I would like to ask the Minister if he wishes to respond to the general comments made by Members who made their comments? Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I will go according to the speakers who came forward and make general responses to some of the general comments. First of all, Mr. Chairman, you were the first one to make a comment. I would like to say that on behalf of the department it has been a pleasure working with you and your community over the years. There are concerns, especially in Pelly Bay. You mentioned an access road to the hunting area. We are prepared to continue looking at that community. We work pretty well with the community in putting forward projects, so they will be looking at it favourably.

Regarding the location of the tank farm, I am told the department is aware of this concern. It is in conjunction between this department and public works, of which I wear that hat as well, those two departments will be consulting with each other over this matter. Thank you.

The honourable Member from Inuvik, Mr. Roland, has been expressing over the last few days in this House and today specifically, on building roads where there are a lot of training opportunities and the creation of employment, and the spin off effects that it has whenever you have a project in a community and in a region. We are very well aware this government is pursuing a new initiative called the Public/Private Partnerships arrangement. We call it the P3. The Inuvik/Tuktoyaktuk proposal is also a candidate for that initiative. The P3 process has not been finalized, but it is a prime candidate for that process and in this way, I just want to mention that it will create jobs and employment in that area.

I will move on generally to Mr. Ootes concern in reduction to this department. The department had taken quite a big hit in the last two years and initially we did not feel the effects of it. It has been two years since we had the first introduction to the reductions. The department is beginning to feel the strain in the amount of reductions that have come to this department. We are coping with it internally as best we can. I agree with the honourable Member, Mr. Ootes, that whenever there are cut backs in departments such as Department of Transportation, it has a ripple effect into businesses. We provide a lot of contracts and once we cut back on projects it certainly has affected business in the community. Thus, the spinoffs to creation of jobs and so forth and it is felt in the communities in terms of the reduction in opportunities for employment. We are very much aware of this in the department.

We need to improve the highway system. The road between Rae and Yellowknife is going ahead. It is also a candidate for the P3, but according to the way we had planned it, it is a ten-year project that we are looking at. If it is successful with the P3 process then, that timeframe might be shortened. This coming summer we plan to do 15 kilometres of reconstruction on the road. We will start at both ends. Fifteen kilometres of it, initially, is approved through the House. Fifteen kilometres on the Rae side and ten kilometres on the Yellowknife side. Together, we will have 25 kilometres of reconstruction, which should create employment opportunities as well as fix the road. I just wanted to say that I use that road quite a bit. I drive to my constituents in Fort Simpson. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, I travelled on it. Although it is an older road, I just want to commend the staff who did the work on it, that they have kept the road, even though the condition it is in, they maintained it to the best of their abilities under the conditions they have had. I would like to commend the staff who worked on it.

Mr. Picco is going to ask a lot of questions later on, according to him. Thanks for the heads up as we go through the different activities in this department. We worked fairly well with the municipality of Iqaluit, the MLA and the leaders there. One of the areas mentioned was on the breakwater project. It is an ongoing concern. We are going to be finishing off, next year, one of the projects there and then we will look at the bigger project this year for an ongoing process.

NAV Canada is an overall problem that we all have in the north. We have lobbied hard, along with air carriers and different political leaders in the north about increases that they plan to impose on us shortly. I think we were able to make some changes before that plan went ahead. We will see how, April 1st, they are planning to implement the first increases to their rates for the larger aircrafts for passengers as well as cargo. At the same time, they are reducing the ATT, there will be an increase, but there will also be a decrease in the tax. They might cancel each other out, but we do not know until we see that. There is another increase that is coming November 1st for the smaller aircrafts. We have to lobby hard, as well, to make sure they take into consideration the northern location and distance we have to travel by aircraft. Aircrafts in many cases are the sole mode of transportation in the north of which they have to take into consideration. There has to be more public consultation. I believe there are scheduled consultations regarding smaller aircraft which is coming up shortly and throughout the summer.

For the honourable Member, on Pond Inlet, we are aware they have been requesting an extension of their airport. This department has received numerous requests from a lot of communities and the MLAs on an extension to their airports. We do not have that kind of money in our budget. What we did do was initiate a study to be done to see how many of these airports, how many requests there are and how we are going to do it should we have the funds. There is a study that is ongoing at this point in time. This department will be looking at Pond Inlet for shipping, wharfs and docks. This summer we will be going into the community and looking at possible sites for wharf and docking improvements in the community.

Mr. Chairman, these are brief responses to the comments that were made.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Page 10-6, 1998-99 main estimates, transportation, corporate services, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $8.141 million. Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. Page 10-7, airports, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $24.975 million. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Steen.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the department's goal is to maintain our existing infrastructure with the resources that we have. This is the first priority of the department and in the case of the airports we have a good runway resurfacing program which is not shown under capital because it is under operations and maintenance, so we do have a substantial and very good runway and resurfacing program. That is why you do not see where we take the program out of in the main estimates. Referring to your constituents, yes, we are going to be initiating resurfacing in Sachs Harbour over the next two years and we are going to be initiating that in Holman Island as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, no, we do not anticipate any cutbacks in the CARS Program and the hours. It is a five-year program and we had negotiated almost all of them last October. It is for five years starting last October that they are in so we do not foresee any cutbacks in their hours. Thank you.

Thank you. You have a couple of seconds. Do you want to take them, Mr. Steen?

Thank you. Mr. Krutko, you are given a couple of seconds to go beyond the normal. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the request from the community of Tsiigehtchic and the MLAs, I have instructed the department to see what the possibilities are and with the resources that we have. We do not have it in the program because of the lack of resources. I am told that there is, although it is not what the requesters want in times of the break up, the location of the community in certain times of the year in freeze up and in break up they are isolated. I understand the concern, a helipad that is there in case of an emergency that could be utilized. At the present time, because of lack of funding, we do not have any plans to do any major planning for putting in any type of emergency strip. Thank you.