Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to ask the Minister, in the infrastructure Mr. Dolynny talked about a little bit in regard to the climate change and the federal government. Is the Minister working with the federal government in regard to some study on the impact of climate change on all our roads in the Northwest Territories? I say that because, again, about the roads into the Sahtu, as the Minister’s words, the play is up to this potential that we’re going to see more and more. Even with Husky. Husky is putting close to over $30 million in building a road to their lease site. That is some serious dollars going into a 35-kilometre road. That tells you a lot. If Husky is willing to put $35 million into a road out of nowhere, actually, that tells me that these oil companies mean business and that right from the border up they’re going to be busy. They want to be busy. They might even bring some stuff to Hay River and barge it there or truck it through the road system. Once they pass Wrigley, they get into the winter road system. Climate change is going to have an impact on our weather and opportunities for employment.
I want to ask the Minister, in the upcoming plans for infrastructure, is his department working with the federal government on any type of initiative that will study our road system with regard to climate change?
I bring this up because I talked with the leadership of the Charter Community of Deline and they are very concerned about the frost on Great Bear Lake.
They are saying that last year on Great Bear Lake the water temperature rose by one degree. That is unheard of. Even today, look outside. It should be really cold and snowing and the ice should be freezing over pretty well in our area. They’re very concerned with the frost on Great Bear Lake and they want to look at an alternative route around the lake to hook up with the winter road section.
I know this is probably the second or third time that I’ve talked to the Minister about this; however, the leadership was very concerned last week that we need to start having some plans on this and having some infrastructure dollars that go towards the winter road from Deline to the winter road that meets up outside of Tulita. I want to ask the Minister again if there has been any type of discussion with the federal government on climate change on our road system in the North here.