Page 11-29, Transportation, activity summary, Community Access Program, operations expenditure summary, $1.008 million.

Page 11-30, Transportation, activity summary, Community Access Program, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $980,000.

Page 11-33, Transportation, activity summary, road licensing and safety, operations expenditure summary, $4.616 million.

Page 11-34, Transportation, activity summary, information item, road licensing and safety, active positions.

Page 11-36 and page 11-37, Transportation, information summary, work performed on behalf of others. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question has to deal with the whole baggage system at the Yellowknife Airport. It appears that this is a recurrent entry that we see year after year with respect to hours charged back due to jamming. When I look at that number, which is a recurrent number, it’s a fairly large number. I’m wondering if there was any thought about maybe replacing this infrastructure to alleviate some of the extra costs we’re seeing in manpower and productivity.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Neudorf.

I do appreciate Mr. Neudorf’s response. The question is if it is about faulty equipment, and if so, is this a recurrent issue that we see in similar sized airports with similar sized equipment?

I have a hard time believing that other airports would be incurring charges of this nature on a repeated process. I’m assuming that at one point in time they would fix the problem and not have to have these type of chargebacks. Again the question being: Is this a very similar occurrence we’re seeing

in other airports of similar size, similar magnitude, similar situations, or is this just a unique situation that we’re seeing in Yellowknife?

Again, with all due respect, we would expect but we don’t know is pretty much the answer that I’m getting here. I would be looking for some type of commitment here from the department and the Minister to maybe do a little research in this area to see if… Again, it’s not a large line entry in the budget as a whole. It’s just more of an irritant to see that charge year after year. From a productivity standpoint it just seems a little bit uncanny. Can we get a commitment from the department here to research this for the Members here and find out maybe if it’s time to replace equipment to save us on some productivity costs?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It isn’t costing the Department of Transportation anything. That’s work performed on behalf of others. That is charged back to the air carriers. Perhaps the definition may have been a little bit confusing and we can work to get a better definition on what exactly that whole baggage system entails. It is work that’s done and paid for from air carriers using that service.

I thank the Minister for saying that. Even if it’s charged back, I can’t speak on behalf of the airlines, but if the airlines are out there listening, you may want to research this a little bit more as well.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I’ll take that as a comment. Any further questions on pages 11-36 and 11-37?

Committee, we will return to page 11-7, Transportation, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $120.415 million.

Does committee agree that we are concluded the Department of Transportation?