The Member for Deh Cho asked me a question about the M.V. Merv Hardie's ice breaking capability.

The M.V. Merv Hardie ferry, which operates at the Fort Providence Mackenzie River crossing, is not an icebreaker and it does not have any ice-breaking capability. The ferry's operating procedures during freeze-up avoids any interaction with the heavy ice flows and shuts down periodically when there are heavy flow ice conditions.

A crawler backhoe is mounted on the bow of the Merv Hardie and with its bucket cuts and maintains an ice-free channel across the river until the ice crossing is ready for traffic. While the ice crossing is under construction, the ferry transits back and forth 24 hours a day to keep the channel open. The M.V. Merv Hardie is not an icebreaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.