Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister. I'd be happy to work with you on several fronts on this one here in terms of educating our young drivers and educating our people in the Sahtu communities and other communities around the North in terms of having safe vehicles on the road and having responsible drivers on the road because our winter seasons are shortening, but we're also taking advantage of our winter roads and it's important to have education in our communities that driving while under the influence is not okay. Any impaired driving issues should be taken very seriously by our people and by this government. So I'm very happy the Minister responded in a positive manner.
Mr. Chairman, I want to talk about the opening comments by the Minister and he's right on the button, Mr. Chairman, he's right on the button in terms of having a cup of coffee on our dashboards in the Sahtu region and not spilling one drop of coffee on our roads. So I don't know if the coffee is frozen, or it's a fresh pot of coffee, but I had that comment made to me by an elder in Fort Good Hope named Charlie Barnaby, telling me he wanted me to make it known to the Minister and his staff for his compliments of 100 percent improving on our winter roads in the Sahtu region. So the elder wanted to pass that along to him. That's his words to the department.
So I wanted to talk about the safety of the public transportation system. Of course, we have our winter road system only about three months and again we're going to ask for a type of increases in the budget for safety signs. We have big trucks coming through on a time schedule, and sometimes they have to meet deadlines and because they're getting paid by the load or the time they drive up into our communities and they do what they have to do to make a quick turnaround. So if there's an increase in safety in motor vehicles and safety signs and the patrols along the way for wide load trucks and fuel trucks, there's also safety precautions put in place that would see that we have safe driving practices on our winter roads.
Mr. Chairman, the issue of contracts in our region, we only have three months of seasonal work. So when we have this work we fight hard for our own contractors who have assets in the Sahtu region to at least have a fair chance of receiving these contracts, because we have three months of work, that's all we get. We don't have an all-season road that comes in and out and they can work on a yearly basis. If anything, we'll get small little contracts in our community, which is grading the roads and cleaning up parts of the airport like that. So we don't have that advantage of having an all-season road and our contracts are only there for three months and once you have them, you make the best of them because if you lose the winter road contract, you might as well just pack up your bags and move to another community and start getting into other areas. A lot of our people are home grown boys who put sweat and equity into their companies. You know, they're going to stay there, they pay their taxes there. So I appreciate the Minister having some flexibility in discussing things like that and other ways we can work, but yet, at the same time, be fair across the Northwest Territories. But we need in the Sahtu that we pay the prices of the Sahtu, so it has to give some consideration to that.
I have also asked the Minister to continue to take back to his office an idea that maybe my former MLA talked about having a regional office of highways into the Sahtu. I know our operations are right out of Fort Simpson now and our other operation head office is out of Inuvik. So I'd like to bring some of the Transportation offices into the Sahtu to maintain some stability and connectedness and connecting all our communities in this area here.
Mr. Chairman, the increase of resource development in the Sahtu region has also indicated for the increase of volume of traffic. I believe the Minister has done some good work in working with the oil companies to see that we have more stable roads and more stability and safety here. So I'm going to leave it at that.
The airport traffic increased also in the past couple of years and I wanted to ask the Minister later on in terms of the shelter in Colville Lake. We still don't have a shelter. I know there's some plans to put something there. We don't have a facility. So if they have any ideas, maybe he can ask his counterparts if they have any ideas for these Novel manufactured homes. Maybe that's something that can go into Colville Lake's airport for show and tell. I think that would be a fine example of the wear and tear of any type of use of a project.
Mr. Chairman, I wanted to ask the Minister also, he talked about the reconstruction of a project in his opening statements in terms of work done around the Mackenzie Valley winter road. How is that going to impact this year and next year? I will have some more questions in the detail, but just maybe some general comments now.
My last comment to the Minister in terms of the Mackenzie Valley all-weather road is that I wonder, again, if he would consider going back to his federal counterparts in saying that we like the idea. Some people right now are half and half on the Mackenzie Valley winter road. Some support it and some don't support it. The idea that they do like is that let's connect the Sahtu communities first before you push the highway south or north. Do not push it from the south up to Tulita or to the Wells. Push it in the communities first; connect Good Hope, Norman Wells and Tulita, and part way into Deline. But not to push it from the south going from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope. Otherwise our people will not have the chance and the capacity to compete with southern contracts on the winter road. Let's connect the Sahtu first, and let's set these priorities. So I want to ask the Minister to give him some of these things to think about in terms of if he wants to respond, then I'll allow him to. Or it's up to you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the time.