Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to Transportation general comments, I'd like to start off by telling a little story about a trip I took to Hay River before Christmas. I was on my way home to attend some constituency events and merely driving down the road towards Fort Providence, only to get there to find out that the ferry had been out of the water for several hours and had not been operating and there was quite a large number of people congregated in Fort Providence at the Big River Service Centre and outside and around and within Fort Providence.
Mr. Chairman, the point of this story is the fact that the information to the traveling public with respect to the ferry operations at that time consisted of a 1-800 number or an Internet site on which to check to find out if the ferry was operational. So fortunately for me I was able to arrange for alternate transportation to Hay River, leaving my vehicle in Fort Providence and getting home for the weekend to attend the events I was going to. Not so fortunate for lots of other people who were stuck in Fort Providence at that time. In fact, two or three busloads of little hockey players had driven all the way from Yellowknife to Fort Providence to find out the ferry had been out for six or seven hours prior to that. I'm sure that quite a few people that were stranded in Fort Providence that night could have had a story to tell. Some were off on vacations. They were catching planes south out of Hay River and there were a number of interesting stories at Big River that night.
So I subsequently was at the Hay River Airport on a Sunday night and constituents were complaining to me, saying that they had called the 1-800 number and that was Sunday evening and the last time it had been updated was that this is information effective Friday, 1:00 p.m., and Sunday night they were still getting that recording. It wasn't a long weekend, but that was the information on Sunday night. So it brought to light a communications problem with respect to the ferry operations. When it's 40 below and it's dark and you're driving down a road that could have buffalo on there, it's not a very pleasant prospect to have to turn around and drive back to Yellowknife. In my case, there would have been no flights out of Yellowknife again to Hay River until Sunday evening. This was on a Friday night.
So when I got back, I took it upon myself to suggest to the Minister that this was not a satisfactory and timely source of information for the traveling public and suggested that a sign flashing brightly at the outskirts of Yellowknife, letting people know if the ferry was operational or not operational, might be more appropriate. So I can say that on my next visit to Yellowknife I was pleasantly surprised to see there was indeed a large lit sign, which gave the status of the ferry at Fort Providence Mackenzie River crossing on the highway. There is one thing though, Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that would have been a better placement for that sign would not have been prior to getting to the airport turnoff, it would be after the airport turnoff because conceivably you could turn to go to the airport on the other side, on the backside of Kingland Ford, go to the airport, drop off a parcel or a person, go onto the highway and you would have completely missed the sign. So I would say the only place you could put it where you would not be able to miss it, would be beyond any turnoff into the airport. So that's the only recommendation I would like to make on that. However, I would like to commend the department that finally, in this modern day of technology, we do have that source of information available in a timely manner now. So I was pleased with the response to it and that was the only amendment to it that I would have suggested.
Mr. Chairman, the other issues that I would like to bring up have to do with the operations of maintenance at the airports. There was a proposed change to the hours of maintenance for the runways in Hay River, which I will speak to specifically. Any callouts after those hours of operation would have been at the expense of the air carrier. I didn't think that these hours worked very well for Hay River. It would seem that the winter hours would be Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 on Sundays, with no scheduled maintenance on Saturdays and there would be no scheduled flights into Hay River on Saturday. I guess in the summertime, it wouldn't be a problem but if it was winter and there was a requirement for snow removal, then I would suggest with the timing of the flights in and out of Hay River, these hours might make it difficult. I would like to ask the Minister if the carriers that use the Hay River Airport were consulted on these hours of operation for maintenance. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.