Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll start my questions with the Deh Cho Bridge and the process of operation there. I’m just wondering how the department is handling the maintenance of the Deh Cho Bridge this winter and has that cost been exactly what we expected. I’ve heard that we have staff on 24-hour call to salt and gravel the bridge. Have there been any additional costs than what we expected on the Deh Cho Bridge?

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The maintenance on the Deh Cho Bridge is own forces and we’ve had to adjust the maintenance in the Fort Providence area to account for the Deh Cho Bridge. In terms of additional costs, you’ll see in the budget there’s $259,000 in additional costs to maintain and operate the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you.

Along the lines of the bridge as well, can the Minister maybe provide me some of the analysis of the toll collection, collecting the tolls? Has that been what we expected and also the other side to it, the expenses? Has the toll system been working effectively and have there been any additional costs to tracking of this or any additional expenses to doing the toll collections?

Thank you. It still is relatively new, but things are on track. We continue to collect tolls. On an annual basis it will be somewhere over $4 million. We have an annual admin cost on the tolls of about $300,000. It is an automated thing. There are pictures of the licence plates that are taken of the trucks that are crossing northbound on the Deh Cho Bridge. So the good news is that the bridge is in service, that tolls are being collected and there haven't been hiccups thus far. Thank you.

My next question on the bridge is we have agreements in place with the utility, I know there are a couple of utility companies, the telephones and maybe potentially the power company that are looking to use the bridge. Is there typically a chargeback to that or is it something we provide for those utility companies?

Thank you. Yes, with NorthwesTel and we’ve also had discussions with the NWT Power Corporation for using the bridge and the conduit in the bridge, and that would be done on a chargeback basis. Thank you.

My next area, obviously, would be the interest in the Tuk to Inuvik highway, but my question would be what does it currently cost us to build the winter road, operate the winter road from Tuk to Inuvik.

Thank you. The Inuvik-Tuk ice road and the road to Aklavik, together they’re about $2 million. So we’re going to save about $800,000 in putting that ice road in between Inuvik and Tuk. It’s about $800,000. Thank you.

Thank you. I’m just wondering also along those lines of any kind of other business case that we’ve looked into the government of the benefits of the Tuk-Inuvik highway. Is there an operational cost that the department has been working with, maybe, the Department of Health or Department of Justice for transportation costs that

we would be saving in the creation or the building of this road? Has a business case been completed for this?

Thank you. Yes, there definitely are benefits to building the Inuvik-Tuk highway. As far as a business case goes, all roads built here in the Northwest Territories, I mean, we wouldn’t have the Deh Cho Bridge if we went strictly of a cost-benefit analysis. So we have to build infrastructure and in this case it’s the Inuvik-Tuk highway that we’re looking at constructing. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I’m just looking for a little more detail on that business case. I’m wondering if the department would be… Obviously this is a capital project, I understand, but I’m just wondering if the department would be investigating some of the additional business case savings that the territorial government would have. Obviously, it’s easier if we’re saving similar to the toll system, it would be an easier case if we could say that we were saving $2 million a year in transportation costs because we don’t have to fly in and out of the community, items like that. Is the department looking at doing any of that type of stuff for us when we’re considering the capital side of this project?

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have done a benefit analysis. We could look at getting that for the Member and other Members as well. The Member is correct; there are a number of those benefits and they have to be quantified. We’d certainly like to help get that information to the Members.

It is still a relatively new system. It’s somewhere around 80 percent in terms of registered users of that toll system. We still have some to capture, but compliance has been good where we continue to move forward with toll collection.

My next line of questioning would be toward the Sahtu winter road. Obviously, some of the other Members had talked about the closures and some of the difficulties there. I’m just wondering what kind of feedback the department has gotten with some of the corporate companies. I know some of the corporations have provided us money for the winter road to get that up and operational as soon as possible. Have we seen much flack from that when the closure was going

on, and do we expect that corporate sponsorship to continue?

Along with the heavy usage of the road, weather was also a big factor early on when the road did first open. This operating system, we got $1.2 million from industry and they have been very supportive in helping us construct and maintain the winter road in the valley. All indications are that next season we may have even more industry buy-in to supporting the government’s efforts on constructing and maintaining that winter road down the Mackenzie Valley. Discussions have been good thus far, but whenever you talk to industry, they want to support getting the winter road to be the best that it possibly can be, but they also talk about the all-weather road and the fact that things would be so much easier if we had a road down the Mackenzie Valley. They’re going to be partners, it looks like, with us for the foreseeable future, which is very encouraging.

Obviously, we wouldn’t be representing all of our fellow Members here if we didn’t mention Highway No. 7 during highway discussions. Mr. Menicoche is travelling this week. My question for Highway No. 7, obviously Hay River being part of the Deh Cho loop and promoting that, I’m just wondering if the department is expecting to continue their upgrade and early maintenance of Highway No. 7 so we have a fabulous year like we did last year. Does the department have any additional funds expected to be worked on Highway No. 7 and will they continue to make sure this maintenance happens earlier in the season?

With Highway No. 7, that is a capital question but I’m more than happy to respond to it. We’ve got $1 million in this year’s capital budget. Going forward we’ve used the number of $250 million would be required for the complete reconstruction of Highway No. 7, which is necessary, but we don’t have $250 million to put towards the complete reconstruction of that highway. What we do have is a plan to come forward with $3 million in capital every year for 10 years, I believe is the length of time, to put a dent in the requirements that are needed on Highway No. 7. With the advance of Prairie Creek and the more usage on that highway, it’s going to become even more imperative that we find the dollars to put into Highway No. 7.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bouchard, your time is up. I will put you back on the list if need be. Next is Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to find out from the department and the Minister here, if one was to look at or wanting to get information with respect to any type of infrastructure such as the Inuvik-Tuk highway, would they be able

to go to the department website to get that type of information, updated information?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Ramsay.

Yes, there are reports there. In fact, I believe the benefit analysis is on the website, as well, so Members could go to the Department of Transportation website and avail themselves of the information that’s there.

Actually, I have the luxury of being in the House here today and I actually have the Department of Transportation website in front of me here in real time. I’m looking at all files related to the Inuvik-Tuk highway and I see here that the last entry of any type of document was in May 2011. Can the Minister indicate to me if there is another site that the general public can go to to find current information, recent information that is not 22 months old?