Mr. Chairman, the dredging issue really doesn’t fall under our mandate as the department. However, having said that, we have concerns in this area as it has impacts to many areas of different sectors of the North. We have the marine traffic and the fishermen that are voicing concern. There’s also the issue with the municipality on some concerns that the island that’s being created in the middle of the river is causing or is certainly not helping with the flooding issues that are happening on the Hay River and to the municipality of Hay River and also to the Hay River Reserve.
We have engaged with several departments now to bring this issue to their attention. We’ve had some discussion with the Coast Guard and they’ve indicated that there is a desire to look at it. As of yet there have not been any dollars identified. We have done some studies on their behalf to look at how serious the issue is. There may be more work that needs to be done to assess the situation. We want to keep pressing this issue. We did raise it with Minister Strahl and he indicated he would bring it to the attention of Gail Shea, the Minister responsible for dealing with this issue, and we will continue to have these discussions in the next while.