We certainly look forward to the department’s initiatives with the community; safety initiatives they could also implement from the community in terms of what safety initiatives could be undertaken. The community has some fairly good ideas about what should be done and what can be done. Some of the signs on the Mackenzie Valley road up in my region are on trees. Sometimes those signs fall down for whatever reason. We want to look at some of those signs in terms of safety measures.
The deputy minister alluded to the bridge program, and we certainly appreciate the bridge program coming to our region. There’s one bridge that’s between Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells called the Oscar Creek Bridge. It’s just sitting there as a monument, and people are wondering when the department will put in the approaches to it. It’s been there for a couple of years now. It’s very dangerous and hazardous.
When will the department, in terms of its priorities on bridges, fix this bridge? They’re going to start on other bridges, but this bridge has been in the spot, sitting there; it’s an eyesore. Actually, it’s starting to become a joke to my people of the Sahtu region, because it’s not doing anything. If this bridge was down somewhere in the south part of the territory, it would be done just like that. The priority is the Oscar Creek Bridge.
There are other bridges, I know, from Big Smith, Little Smith — bridges that need to be up and running. I’d ask the deputy or the Minister: when will we see the Oscar Creek Bridge completed, rather than just have a monument there?