Mr. Chairman, I am aware that some communities did in fact have fire fighting equipment to respond to crashes in the form of foam or dry chemicals. This in fact was some equipment that was turned over from Transport Canada, that was turned over to Arctic airports at the time.

The training that goes with this, there was no funding from Transport Canada in regard to training local fire fighters in the communities to handle this equipment, so it fell on MACA and the community to try and resolve the problem by supplying some form of training to handle this equipment.

However, this is a voluntary service that they have in these communities, and it is not always available on a 24-hour notice. Therefore, there is a problem of having the equipment or the fire fighters respond to situations at the airports.

MACA has tried, I know, to work with the communities to address the situation through the training that was available under their programs, but the communities still felt there was a need to have some form of training to actually respond to a fire at the airports. To my knowledge, the process is still ongoing and I do not know at what stage it is sitting.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Steen.

Mr. Chairman, all of our airports are subject to inspections by Transport Canada. They set the standards and we maintain the airports to those standards, either directly through our own force or through contracts with the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. I do not know if there was a question there, or a suggestion more or less, mostly comments. Do you want to respond, Mr. Minister?

Mr. Chairman, I will ask Mr. Vician to respond to that.

Thank you. Mr. Vician.

Thank you, Mr. Vician. Page 10-11, airports, budget summary, operations expense, total operations expense, $19,217,000.

Page 10-13, information item, airports, grants and contributions.

Page 10-15, highways, budget summary, operations expense, total operations expense, $35,141,000. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister exactly what is he doing to attempt to link as many communities as we can to our present road system, so that we can expand our transportation links to communities, so that we can eventually have a system in the North where we have the ability to drive from the majority of our communities who are accessible to our highway systems.

There may be some communities we may not be able to access, such as Holman Island or Sachs Harbour, because they are on an island, but eventually maybe we can give them ferry service.

When we do strategies or initiatives in this government, we should be looking long term. I think the goals we set for ourselves should be at some point in time in the future. We do have a road system that every resident in the Northwest Territories has the ability to drive from as many communities as possible so that we have a system that connects our communities by roads.

When will the Minister's department consider looking at doing that, knowing that we have 2,200 kilometres of highway and winter roads of some 1,400 kilometres? Will the department consider looking at the possibility of such a strategy, knowing we are having problems now with our winter systems because of the greenhouse effects?

Right now, looking outside, you can see the temperatures we are having in December, January and even in February. Has your department considered looking at such an endeavour with regard to the different strategies that you have been doing?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Steen.

Mr. Chairman, I believe the Member is referring to our Highway Investment Strategy. Through that strategy, we have plans to construct all-weather roads in the Mackenzie Valley to the Beaufort Sea. This would serve to connect those communities in that area to the highway system.

We have identified in the Highway Investment Strategy future investments. At the time the strategy was put in place, the department and this government had a very limited source of funding that we could direct towards that type of construction. It does put the department in a position where we cannot address all the needs that have been identified by everyone in the Territories.

In particular, as you get further and further off the general route, some of these routes that are being suggested now were just possibilities at the time we put the Highway Strategy together. I think it would be beneficial that we looked at this Highway Strategy as a living document rather than simply something that is written in stone. I think we are looking at this document as something that would be reviewed on an ongoing basis. That would probably address the needs that some Members have brought up here.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Will the Minister consider looking at the possibility of doing a study or an evaluation to see what the possibility is of linking communities in my riding? Aklavik has for years wanted an all-weather road. Communities like Wha Ti...sure we have a winter road up the valley where the people have been pushing for an all-weather road from Wrigley all the way up to Tuktoyaktuk. These talks have been going on, but it seems like the strategy that has been done to date, the Non-Renewable Resource Strategy and the Highway Strategy, is more looking at the non-renewable sector.

If the Minister is open, I would strongly encourage the Minister and his department to take this on and look at the possibility of doing a scenario of what the actual cost will be to link our communities to our highway systems, so we could eventually have an all-weather road system connecting the majority of the communities in the Northwest Territories. Will the Minister consider looking at that as a possibility down the road?

Mr. Chairman, I think it would be beneficial to everyone if the department could approach the federal government as another option for funding for access roads or all-weather roads into communities that are not on the existing highway system.

As the Member stated, we seem to be addressing more the need for new roads to serve industry. Maybe there is a need for an approach where we approach the federal government for funding to do surveys into supplying all-weather roads into those communities that are not involved in any kind of economic activities such as mining or oil and gas.

I would be happy to take the Member's comments and look into what process we could use to approach the federal government on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Krutko.