Thanks to the Minister. I would agree with his assessment. I don’t think there would be a lot of buy-in. I guess I would just ask, at this point, if that report is dusted off and some of the recommendations are going to be put in place, if the Minister would be sure to involve Yellowknife Members and the City of Yellowknife.

I have another question in regard to the Yellowknife Airport as well. There’s a reference to commercial land development in the airport environs here in Yellowknife. I wondered if I could get an update on where that is at as well. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, two parts, I guess, to the comments there. The first, on the airport authority, we are looking at some of the recommendations. There is, as part of the recommendations to move towards an airport authority, the desire to have an airport that’s more businesslike or businesslike operations and, of course, we want to do that also. It also looks at how to generate and raise fees so that the airport itself would be generating its own revenues. So we are looking at all different areas of our fees and our permitting so that we can be more on-line with other jurisdictions. As to the last question, I’ll ask Mr. Neudorf to respond to that.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Anything further, Ms. Bisaro? Mr. Neudorf.

If I could get an answer from Mr. Neudorf, that would be good.

Sorry. Mr. Neudorf.

Thanks, Mr. Neudorf. I didn’t hear any reference in Mr. Neudorf’s answer to, basically, commercial businesses. I guess I would like to know, when he’s referencing things like the combined services building and so on, those are basically government buildings, so is there an intent to use the land that’s now been opened up with the bypass road? Is there an intent to allow for commercial enterprises, private businesses to establish themselves out there and, if that’s the case, how is the department evaluating the disruption to the Yellowknife market that that may cause in general? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the Yellowknife Airport development plan includes allowance for commercial development on the airport site more on the new bypass area. We have worked with the city for many years to avoid any type of disruption and we continue to look at air or related businesses that have some kind of function with the air industry and to do with the airport, and we will continue to try to focus in that area.

Thanks to the Minister. It’s good to hear that, that businesses are related to the airline industry. In terms of the land, is this government land? Is it city land? If it is city land, how are taxes dealt with? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, this land is Commissioner’s land under the authority of the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is all I have. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just with respect to the airports, once again everybody worked hard on both sides of the government to relocate the Trout Lake Airport. I understand progress is going, but I don’t have questions on that. But I do want to first bring up once again the runway lighting for two of the communities in my riding. One of them is Jean Marie River and Nahanni Butte. Also, there was an airport improvement, too, on the Nahanni Butte runway. It was an opportunity to put in runway lighting, but at the same time, I still would like to have those installed in the communities hopefully in the near future, Mr. Chairman. I will continue to support the communities as we move forward with these requests. I would like to ask the Minister once again about runway lighting for those two communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, we have recognized and heard from the Member and he has made it very evident that he has concerns with runway lighting in those three communities. We have experienced problems, of course, in those three communities with runway lighting. They are very expensive to replace. I have had some discussion with our staff to see if we can explore some best practices of how we can avoid the situation of damaging the lights. I will certainly keep the Member informed if we are going to move to the next step on that. At this point, we need to be reassured that we are not going to be replacing the lights on an annual basis.

Mr. Chairman, I think that is the key thing in this initiative should it move forward. Of course, there have been incidents in the past that have led to cost of repairs to those runways, but I do know that the department has, not only in those communities but in other communities, been teaching operators about safety, care and attention around lighting equipment on runways. Just once again, of course, I want to let the Minister know that it is still a priority of mine and hopefully we can work towards that goal in the future. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we recognize it is a goal of the Member. We also have provided training, as the Member has stated, in the communities. Anybody allowed to go airside needs to be trained. We have had problems that we need to be comforted that we can overcome in those communities. If that is something we can deal with, then we can certainly look at doing the needs assessment on reinstating the lights.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister several questions. The first one is on the interest into the airport authority concept. Is there any type of preliminary discussions or just analysis? When you have an airport authority, does the airport authority speak to the self-sufficiency of running its own operations and possibly maybe this could free up some money from the GNWT in terms of the operations? I know it is a sensitive issue. I just want to ask that type of question in terms of a businesslike approach similar to other airports, Yellowknife operates under. There are certainly a lot of discussions with other stakeholders that I dare not say right now, but I just want to see if that is something that they are looking at. It does make business case sense, but we will have to come to that when we get there. However, I just want to see if that is sort of some of the analysis that this department is looking at.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Michael McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, the concept of airport authority requires the airport authority itself to make the decisions on governance and also it is required that they deal with the revenues and all the operational costs of the authority. It is something we look at. It is something that we have had analysis done on at least the Yellowknife Airport. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, in terms of the revenue source, are we, specifically in this city, the Yellowknife Airport, revenue in terms of the leases and the area? Are we seeing that we had enough so potentially we could even publish support if we provide the rent there as the reason we are late there? We could say that this airport could be self-sufficient if we did look at it from a business case point of view. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the concept of airport authority has been looked at. Models have been drafted. It would prove successful, I guess, if that was the desire. We have also looked at our own operations. We are working hard towards balancing the cost of operations and the revenues. Therefore, I think we are achieving the same result, in my own opinion and some of my staff. The capital, of course, is always a challenge. That is outside of the operations. That would continue to be something the government would have to look at.