Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You mention that in some cases that some of this money will go into Highway No. 1. Why would it not then go under the Highway No. 1 section, because you have a couple of areas here of Highway No. 1, reconstruction paving, second stage paving. So why would it not be allocated in that area? Thank you.
Debates of July 5th, 2000
This is page numbers 467 - 532 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Howard
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is no real easy answer for that. We have stuck to the project names that we established a number of years ago. We have talked about, in the next business planning cycle, rationalizing the project names, but we have not done anything about that yet.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As well, this might have been asked earlier, but what is the life of resurfacing? When you first complete the repaving and reconstruction and the hard top is down, what is that life? And then, what is the life of the chip-seal?
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Howard
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is a high degree of variability. Asphalt should be expected to last at least ten years, perhaps longer. Chip-seal, on the other hand, will not last nearly so long as asphalt, but it depends on the base and whether there has been any embankment failures. It depends on erosion on the shoulders, it depends on many, many factors. So, really, what you have in the chip-seal replacement repair project is a result of the spring inspection of the system.
Our folks go out and have a look to see where the chip-seal is breaking up or where there are grade failures, where there are problems, and they allocate the money on that basis, but normally, we would hope that the chip-seal is going to last at least six years.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just on, again, with this 2001 highways, kilometres 0 to 154, you have $1.5 million for this fiscal year, in 2002-2003, it is another $1.5 million, and then again, 2004-2005. Is this an ongoing maintenance requirement? Is that the reason why it is broken out this way? Thank you.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Howard
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that is correct.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 505
Floyd Roland Inuvik Boot Lake
So the same, Mr. Chairman, would be for the Highway No. 3 kilometres 154 to 243, because they alternate years actually, Mr. Chairman. If we were to look at that 2001 -2002 as $1.5 million, 2003-2004 as $1.5 million, is it the same process here? Thank you.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
Howard
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that is correct and we would hope to rationalize that over the next business planning cycle and turn that into a direct program rather than to allocate it to specific sections of highway.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
The Chair David Krutko
We are on page 17 on the main estimates. Acquisitions. We are under highways, $15,383,000.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
July 5th, 2000
Page 506
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Any questions on airports. Mr. Krutko.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I had a question to the Minister earlier, he suggested I do it under detail. In regards to the Aklavik air terminal under airports, the original cost for replacement of the facility was $572,000, but in the budget I see that there is a cost for some $200,000. Yet you can look at other airports being replaced, which is within the $500,000 range. I used the Holman Island air terminal replacement, which took place last year, which is a similar building as what they have in Aklavik, and that building has the same history, which was built back in the 1970s, which is almost 30 years old.
Yet, in the case of Holman, they did a total replacement, but in the case of Aklavik, it is just a retrofit of the existing building. With the increased traffic and also with the oil and gas industry, you are going to see more demand on that airport and the facility and I am not too sure that the department took that into account when they decided this.
I would like to ask the Minister, have you considered doing a complete replacement rather than having to do a retrofit now and then an upgrade again later, which would probably cost more in the long run? Thank you.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Steen.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
Vince Steen Nunakput
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Member for holding off on his question until we reached the activity. The department did consider whether we should replace the building or whether we should do renovations at this time. I will ask Mr. Howard to expand on that statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Howard.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
Howard
I will go back, very briefly, in history. The Member pointed out earlier that the building was built at the same time as the air terminal building in Holman. I believe both of those buildings were put up by Transport Canada in 1982. Effectively, they are identical buildings, and I think Sachs Harbour actually was built a year after or maybe two years after the Aklavik building. Again, the same kind of building.
When we looked at the projects in all three communities, and we have done work in Sachs Harbour to renovate and expand the building and, as the Member points out, we have replaced the building in Holman. Now Aklavik is in the program. We looked at replacements for all three initially. The first thing we do when we look at a building replacement is to look at traffic forecast needs.
The next thing we do is we look at the remaining life of the existing building and make a determination of whether the forecast needs, in terms of traffic and the remaining life, require replacement or whether they require rehabilitation and expansion.
In the case of Holman we determined, in terms of need, that the building was far too small to meet the passenger traffic that was flowing through the building. To expand the existing building in Holman to the degree that it needed to be expanded, was going to cost us considerably more than to start with a new building to meet the same requirement. That did not mean that the existing building in Holman did not have remaining life and, in fact, that building has since been relocated to town and will probably serve the town for another purpose for many years to come.
In the case of Aklavik, we did the same thing. We looked at the forecasted passenger movements through the airport and we heard nothing to tell us that there was going to be any immediate growth. We looked at the current traffic flow through the terminal and subject to the requirements at peak periods, over Christmas holidays and special events, the building was not being stretched to its capacity.
We then had Public Works go and do a full structural, mechanical and technical assessment of the building, and based on the fact that the building had a design life of 40 years, initially, it was only 18 years old. Based on the fact that Public Works' reports said that, with some modest investment, we could expect to get another ten to 15 years out of the building, at a cost of $250,000 to $300,000.
The decision was pretty clear to us. The community was involved in the discussions with Public Works and our regional staff and then we recognized that the community would certainly prefer a new building over renovation of the existing building, but we are convinced for the price of under $300,000, we are going to get another ten years of life out of that building.
The renovation process will involve similar renovations to those that were done in Aklavik, where we will provide for barrier free access washrooms, which will actually provide a bit of an expansion in the public area and the baggage handling area.
So the position the department has taken, rather than spend something like the million dollars plus that we actually spent in the end in Holman to replace the building, we are better off to invest $300,000, meet the current and forecasted needs, and provide the community with a good terminal that will last them another ten years or so. Thank you.
Committee Motion 19-14(3): Recommendation That The GNWT Not Make Any Further Reductions In Funding To The Northwest Territories Transportation System (carried)
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 506
The Chair Leon Lafferty
Thank you. Mr. Krutko.