Paul Delorey Hay River North

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, this issue has been brought up a number of times, and it’s one we continue to struggle with.

There had been a proposal a few years ago to put in an extra 21 parking stalls out front. We had budgeted approximately $140,000 to do that. When we got an estimate to do those parking stalls, it was considerably higher than that, plus the fact that it was late in the fall when the bids came in.

At the same time, there was talk about a courthouse building being built on the precinct here. We wanted to make sure, when we did it, that it was going to be compatible with whatever was happening at the courthouse, so we delayed doing it.

However, we’re at a point now where we have to look at that situation again. We know the roadway out front and parking, as well, are problems for us. We manage to keep security out front to try to control vehicles when there’s an event going on here, but it’s a constant struggle for us. That is something I’m quite sure Members can expect to see coming forward in the business plans this fall — something we’re going to have to do to address our parking and roadway out front.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I appreciate the answer from the Speaker on that. The money that was allocated to it in previous years allowed the Speaker’s Office to go out for tender on this project. Has that money lapsed or been set aside for later use?

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Chairman, has the Speaker’s Office, vis-à-vis through the board, ever considered widening the loop on the roadway? You could be seen as updating the road to somewhat better conditions. Furthermore, we could widen it for safety reasons, and that could help facilitate parking around the loop on one side when we do have these occasional big bursts of capacity being overtaken during special events here. Has that ever been considered or seriously examined? We could help avoid maybe blasting more rocks or carving into some other area, which seems a little unfeasible at this time.

Paul Delorey Hay River North

As Members know, the area out front that we’re talking about, for the road going around the loop and even the parking lot for that matter…. When it was built, they did it to disturb as little of the environment out there as they possibly could. The road is really narrow. We’re still dealing with the swamp area out there regardless of what we do. The engineers have actually suggested we may widen that area, but it would be more or less for road stabilization — to try to maintain a half-decent road out there. We still want to be very conscious. I don’t think the mentality on what we do out front has changed an awful lot as far as not wanting to disturb the environment around that area any more than we absolutely have to. One thing we

will be looking at is basically widening it for road stability.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Chairman, taking advantage of widening it due to road stability may be the opportunity to save on requirements for future parking. Again, it’s the spillover problem that has people parking there anyway, and this would just help clean it up a little bit. I would seek some thoughts from the Speaker to see if they can include that in the review when they do the study to widen the road based on stability. My assumption would be that it would only be a few extra feet wide in order both to accommodate the stability and to ensure there is safe passage of vehicles. We parked on one side of that during occasions that required…. There aren’t really that many occasions, yet you get people parking there anyway. So it would go a long way.

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Again, we can look at that. Our main concern is to have some stability in the roadway out there and address the parking problem that we have, probably through adding some extra parking to the lot. That’s certainly one thing we could look at — whether just widening the base out there would help us out with parking when there is a major event here. So we will look at that.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you. I look forward to any future discussion on that. I hope the Speaker would keep me informed. This is an issue I brought to the Speaker’s Office. Since I’ve been here as a Member, it’s been an issue raised to me on a number of occasions by constituents who’ve come here and there’s no parking because the parking lot is full. I don’t think creating a new parking lot specific to parking would be the right way to go. I think we could meet a couple of these problems head-on by widening the road. I look forward to seeing some details and also further encourage the Speaker to keep my office informed on this matter, because as he knows, I think I even wrote him as of November regarding this matter. Again, it continues to be an issue, so I’ll take that as a commitment to keep me informed.

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Yes, we will. Of course, all these issues are considered at the Board of Management level and through the Clerk’s Office. We will keep the Member informed as to where we plan on going with this.

The Chair David Krutko

Okay, we’re on page 1-13, Activity Summary, Office of the Clerk, Operations Expenditure Summary: 7.826 million.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Clerk, Operations Expenditure Summary: $7.826 million, approved.

The Chair David Krutko

Page 1-14, information item, Office of the Clerk, Active Positions. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a question. The Speaker indicated we are eliminating two positions, and I believe one of them is a vacant library tech position. But there’s no change in the number of positions from ’07–08 to ’08–09. So if I could have an explanation, please.

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Speaker.

Paul Delorey Hay River North

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Yes, we’re eliminating one position. However, we’re adding a new finance administration clerk position, so that offsets the position. That’s why the total employees is the same.

Legislative Assembly, Activity Summary, Office

of the Clerk, Active Positions, information item (page 1-14), approved.