Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 107-17(4), NWT Capital Estimates 2014-15, to conclude, hopefully, the Department of Education and then Transportation, then, time willing, NWT Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Okay, committee, we’ll commence after a short break.

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All right. Committee, welcome back. Committee, we are on capital estimates, activity summary, page 8-7, on Education, Culture and Employment, and with that, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to reiterate the pressing needs…

Sorry, Mr. Yakeleya. We’ll just go to the Minister here first to see if he has witnesses. Minister Lafferty.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I do have witnesses.

Does committee agree we can bring witnesses in the House?

Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort our witnesses in.

Again, Minister Lafferty, if you can introduce your witnesses to the House,

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have to my left, Dana Heide. He is the associate deputy minister with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We have Tammy Allison, who is the coordinator of capital planning within ECE. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Thank you, Ms. Allison and Mr. Heide, for returning here. Again, we will go to Member Yakeleya. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to say again that the needs in this department, with regard to the infrastructure needs…and certainly being reminded by the Minister of Finance as to the amount of funding we have, and putting the funding where it makes sense and it makes a good business case. I just want to remind the Minister and his officials here of the support that is going to be needed in forthcoming years in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to the support for families, single parents. There is a great deal of opportunity coming up in the Sahtu that would greatly appreciate support in the department for early childhood daycare homes. I understand that currently there was one in Norman Wells that closed down, and Norman Wells is a pretty busy place where both parents are working due to the high cost of living in that community, and now they’re going to face more pressure because of the issue of conversion of the energy source they will be needing in that community.

I’m looking at this department in this capital planning process to see where the single parents and the families can get help in the communities in the Sahtu. If there is a plan out there that would look at the Sahtu communities, to look at seeing what type of requirements and criteria are needed to bring in daycare homes for our communities. I stated, sometime in my Member’s statement, that there are employment rates that are quite low in regard to people working in Sahtu communities other than Norman Wells, and that there is a high percentage of families that are headed by single parents. Even in Norman Wells both parents are

working to support their homes and there is really no support for them in regard to daycare types of programs and homes. So I’m hoping that the Minister would bring forth a type of plan in terms of partnerships, where we could have daycare homes in our communities. That’s one point.

The second point, and my last point, is looking for this government here to look at the emerging need of a Sahtu technical institute. Start planning for our region. Through the combination of various meetings of organizations and this government here, I believe that a small Sahtu technical institute can be established within the life of this government, and that we can see where our people could take some additional specialized training, or just general training in heavy equipment mechanics trade that is going to match the needs of the oil and gas companies that are coming into the Sahtu, or the supporting services. These companies have to support the oil and gas industry and also support the communities in electrical, plumbing, pipefitters or painters, so we need to start building that type of infrastructure.

It would be good to hear from this government that this department will look at some of this much needed infrastructure that could happen in the Sahtu. For the last 10 years we have received some of the infrastructure, but also in the last 10 years we have sort of seen a – I’m not too sure how to call it – a zigzag in terms of infrastructure. Today we know that we’re very early in the stages of developing the Sahtu, and that’s all because of the oil and gas exploration and the potential that could be there to develop it further into something that is quite astounding in regard to taking the oil out of the Sahtu.

I’d like to ask the Minister what infrastructure phases that he can start in regard to building these types of buildings or places in our region. In the past we didn’t have that, and that was understandable, but today it’s a different story. When you have 11 parcels that are taken up and over $600 million committed just for the exploration, that tells you that there’s something happening there. When you have one company spend over $40 million on an all-weather road out in the bush, that tells you that there’s something going on there, and so I hope that is some strong indication to what potentially could happen in the Sahtu. That’s what I’m looking forward to in this infrastructure budget with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

I’ll leave it at that there and hope that the Minister would come forward in the future, within the life of this government, to demonstrate that yes, he’s heard us and is working towards it within our cycle and our plan. We don’t have much time left in this government here to see any type of really significant changes. I’m hoping for these two; that

would mean a lot for the people of the Sahtu. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Definitely, by all means we will be through standing committee and also the capital planning process with all of these requests from MLAs and this will be one of them.

The Sahtu region is going to be very busy, as we know. We are closely monitoring their situation. We’re working very closely with the leadership. They were here today, as well, touring the Legislative Assembly. They had various meetings and I did have a chat with them as well. They want to have future meetings regarding various initiatives that are happening in the Sahtu region.

The child care in Norman Wells is an area that we can certainly re-evaluate the situation. I agree with the Member that we need to encourage the community members to access the workforce environment. We must encourage them by all means.

Again, the Member alluded to partnership. Definitely this is an area I am always interested in, having an open dialogue with the leadership, with the MLA, how best to serve the constituency of the Sahtu region and, more specifically, if it happens to be Norman Wells, how can we make this work. Let’s find a solution. I am more open to that. These are some of the challenges we are faced with and I believe it creates more opportunities for us.

Child care and training institutes also go hand in hand. I have talked to it yesterday already, that we are working with regional training committee members that involve industries and other stakeholders from the region. They have developed and produced a community needs assessment and we need to work with that. That will capture the daycare as well. From that, we need to put it forward as part of the capital planning process for next year or the following year, as the Member has alluded to, and we need to build on that.

Training needs to be looked into by the committee. We obviously will need to build on this. I agree with the Member that this is an area that we need to push forward. We are very closely monitoring it as well. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Committee, again, we are on 8-7. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to follow up on a conversation here and conversations earlier today on child care spaces and what facilities we are putting in place.

First of all, how many child care spaces or facilities do we have in the Northwest Territories? What is

the capacity of our child care facilities across the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Just going through these binders that we have, we don’t have the specific daycare establishments or the actual numbers, but we can provide that to Members.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. I’m sure Members will appreciate that. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we could, at the same time, provide that by community, the number of new spaces and the affordability of those child care spaces, that would be appreciated.

What is in the budget for new child care spaces and facilities this time around here? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, as outlined in the description, we don’t necessarily have it in the capital plan at this point, but we are discussing it through the Early Childhood Development Framework and whether it is the next year or the following year. As Member Yakeleya also alluded to the interest and the need in his region, we need to identify what is required in all the regions and what is existing right now, and we will be providing that to Members. At this point, when we look at capital infrastructure, we don’t have a set of capital infrastructure pertaining to the daycare. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. As well, we can maybe get a commitment to Mr. Bromley regarding the affordability and daycare facilities by community, as requested. Mr. Lafferty.

Yes, Mr. Chair, we will provide that detailed information.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I guess I would appreciate it. I know that discussion with Mr. Yakeleya was interesting and appropriate here. I would like to expand that to the NWT, and obviously I’m very interested in Detah and Ndilo, as well as Yellowknife and so on.

Could we also get what the plan is for new child care facilities at the same time when the Minister provides that information? I understand that inspections are on their way now, but as soon as that’s available, if we can get the plan perhaps brought to committee or some sort of commitment there in the near future. Obviously, the life of this Assembly is on the wane here now and we want to get some of these things done. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, we will provide the recent and most detailed information on the child care facilities at the present time and also

what our plan is as we move forward, the short-term and long-term plans as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Committee, we are on 8-7, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, education and culture, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $2.986 million. Does committee agree?

If I can get you to return to the department summary, committee. That is on page 8-2, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $3.74 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Does committee agree that we have concluded consideration of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment?

Thank you, committee. I’d like to thank the Minister. I would like to thank our witnesses here today and if I could get the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses out of the Chamber, thank you.

Committee, do we agree to proceed with consideration of the Department of Transportation?

Thank you, committee. There is a section 9 in your binders. We will now go to the Minister of Transportation to see if he has any witnesses he would like to bring into the Chamber.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. I will get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses into the House.

Mr. Ramsay, would you like to introduce your witnesses to the House, please?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation. To my right I have Ms. Jayleen Robertson, director of environment and communications with DOT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Ms. Robertson, Mr. Neudorf, welcome to the House today. Committee, we will defer 9-2. We will come back to it at the end. I would like to turn your attention to 9-4, Transportation, activity

summary, airports, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $3.075 million. Does committee agree? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wonder if I can get an update on the situation in the Sahtu, given all the activity there. I don’t see much in the Sahtu other than a tractor for the Norman Wells Airport. I’m just wondering what the status is. Is the Minister anticipating getting… The word “prepared” comes to mind. If we could get an update on what the strategy is. I understand there is something like $630 million worth of activity in the Sahtu this year associated with the oil development alone and I’m just wondering what sorts of pressures we are experiencing and if there’s anything coming up there.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for the question. Certainly there’s a lot of activity taking place in the Sahtu. I think the number for economic spent this coming winter season is somewhere around $90 million, I do believe.

A lot of the goods that end up there do go through the airport, but the Norman Wells Airport is a regional airport. It’s a hub. It is equipped to handle the increased activity. Going forward, we’ve identified some funding through the Corridors for Canada III proposal to the federal government, where we would see an increased opportunity through commercial space at the Norman Wells Airport to help with the development that’s taking place in the Sahtu.

We are convinced that the Norman Wells Airport is in good position to handle the traffic. Thank you.

I was talking about the Sahtu generally, of course. I sort of agree that we expect the regional hub to be good for the short term here. It’s the smaller airports that I’m wondering about and if they’re seeing any kind of magnitude-increase in activity. I know Tulita, a beautiful spot, but it’s a pretty modest facility there and so on.

We do appreciate there will be impacts on the smaller communities in the Sahtu as well. In the past, we have had a runway length study that we did. We are in the process of updating that study so we can ensure that runway lengths are going to fit the required need in the area as development continues to move forward.

In the past we have worked with the communities. Fort Good Hope is an example; I’m working with the community to see the runway extended there. I know there is some interest from Deline and I had the chief in my office this morning, talking about that again. So we’re anxious to see if there are opportunities to partner with people and get some

of these things done. Again, work continues in that area. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I know he’s aware that we want to be doing these things before there is a consequence of not having these facilities there. So being in front of this stuff would be good.

I’d like to turn briefly to Inuvik and the example of some of the climate change impacts that are being experienced there with the runway. Obviously, I don’t see it in this budget. Presumably it will be handled some other way here soon. Do we know what the total cost of that issue is? Are there any other instants like that that are happening in our airport infrastructure that the Minister could bring us up to date on? Thank you.

Two things with the Inuvik Airport, through the Corridors for Canada III proposal we are looking at a new terminal building for Inuvik. That’s a very positive move forward. Also the Member has talked about climate change and the impact it’s had on the runway in Inuvik, and we just recently experienced a dip in the runway and we had to provide an immediate fix. That immediate fix cost about $600,000. It will be a total repair of about $2.5 million when all is said and done on that runway.

We continue to have discussions with the Department of National Defence on extending the runway in Inuvik and hopefully we can see the day where the federal government is going to put a substantial investment in the Inuvik Airport in a runway extension. So we continue to have those discussions with the federal government as well. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. So that’s the only airport that this has expressed itself in that way this year, I’m assuming, unless there’s any further update. What are we doing to try to assess airports for vulnerability to this sort of thing, so that we can again try to get ahead of the game? It comes to mind now that Hay River had an issue, and again there’s a clear trend development here and we know it’s going to get worse. What are we doing to try to get ahead of this and what sorts of costs are we seeing now?

No doubt, we are at the forefront of the climate change and the impact climate change is having here in the North. We have had the experience in Inuvik. We have had a similar experience and it’s an ongoing issue in Hay River. I know the Members from Hay River would know that. We’ve also had a small dip in one of the runways here in Yellowknife that we’ve had to remedy as well.

As far as work, the Northwest Territories, given our location and fact that we are on the front line of climate change, we can have a lot of impact in

helping others deal with it, as well, and taking a look at how we can mitigate the impacts of climate change. I know our airport folks are doing a lot of work in that regard, trying to ensure the runways can stand up given this impact of climate change and maybe help others dealing with similar situations. Thank you.

Thanks for that information. Maybe I could just hear what the costs were this year so far for the Hay River and Yellowknife situations. On a looking-forward basis, when our school roofs started to collapse because of snow loads, unexpected snow loads, we adapted by changing the standards that construction had to meet for the roofs of schools. Are there those sorts of adaptations happening in the construction of runways to deal with these eventualities or probabilities? Thank you.

The issues with the runways have been ongoing for a number of years. Again, we are trying our best to mitigate those issues with our runways, and they are O and M. We treat them as O and M. In the case of Hay River, the repairs to the Hay River runway, I think we were in the magnitude of $2 million, maybe just slightly over $2 million. As I mentioned earlier, the complete fix for the dip in the Inuvik runway at the end of the day is going to be about $2.5 million. Thank you.

Thanks for that information. The Yellowknife one sounds like… Is that in the past? Are we changing our standards in runway construction in recognition of the new challenges?

Yellowknife experienced these difficulties, I believe, about eight to 10 years ago and it was fixed using some insulation and other materials under the runway and we haven’t experienced problems since that was fixed. Again, that’s going back almost a decade.

Again, not to be overly persistent, I am just wondering if we’ve changed our standards of construction with runways and airport landing strips. Thank you.

The design continually changes in a way to address and mitigate climate change. As I mentioned, the runway repair back 10 years ago, the materials that were used, I mean, we’re learning something with every repair we do here in the Northwest Territories on what works best. Again, it’s all in an effort to mitigate the impact. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Continuing on with questions, I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much. Just in regard to airports, the Trout Lake Airport project, I was just there on my fall constituency visit and the project has been delayed, so I just wanted to know

how much of a delay there is. Is there expected potential extra costs as well? It’s currently not listed in the current budget, only because it was supposed to be completed this year. I’d just like to ask the Minister, are there plans for moving forward with the Trout Lake Airport construction, will it have an impact on this budget and is there any expected cost increases on the project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you. A lot of these are items that we are still currently trying to work out with the contractor. We’re hoping to have the Trout Lake Airport complete by next summer, and we have experienced some wet weather, some other issues with the project itself, but we are continuing to work out and iron out the difficulties to try to get the project completed by next summer. I have made a commitment to the Member that we’re going to sit down with the community and make sure the project does see its way through to completion. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to bringing the Minister to Trout Lake, because the community has always seen it as their project and they want to continue to benefit from whatever work is left there. So we’ll just leave it at that until we get into the community to meet with the leadership on the Trout Lake Airport.

A couple more questions under airports. Trout Lake has also been asking for a snow blower and that’s something I’ve been raising for some time. I think there was a plan to move a blower in there about two years ago. So can the department tell me about what plans there are to put a snow blower in the community of Trout Lake? It’s a fly-in community and it’s an incredible amount of work moving snow with a grader.

Yes, thank you. We are aware of the situation in Trout Lake when it comes to the use of the snow blower. We believe there probably are more effective ways to deal with it and it all comes down to the amount of snow load in a community, but I don’t know if there’s more of a technical response. Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could go to the deputy minister for that.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much. I would certainly like to see it in future plans as we move to the opening of the new Trout Lake Airport and it’s a much larger area, much more snow has to be removed. Once again, I make the case from the community that I don’t have the records to show how many airplanes they do get, but I know every time I travel there, there’s an awful lot of airplane traffic. I’m sure the air traffic companies in and around the North are starting to depend on us having that airport open, including for emergencies, so they see the need for a new snow removal machine and I’ll press that with the Minister one more time.

Just on the last note and then I’ve pretty much asked all my questions. In the application of EK35 products, is there going to be any done in the Nahendeh riding at all as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, before I go to Mr. Neudorf for a response on the EK35, I just wanted to provide the Member that I believe it’s a fair comment that the Member has on the provision of a snow blower in Trout Lake, and as we move toward having the new runway in place in Trout Lake we can see how that may fit into future plans for the department. So I appreciate the Member bringing that up and it’s something I can’t make a commitment on today, but we definitely will look at that. Thank you. We’ll go to Mr. Neudorf for the EK35 question. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you. Moving on with questions, we have Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions for the Minister. Under Aklavik, I know a number of years ago the community was promised the expansion of the airport. I’d just like to ask the Minister when does the department plan to expand that airport. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you. In the almost two years I’ve been Minister, I don’t recall a formal request from the community to expand the airport at Aklavik. If that’s something that predates me, maybe the deputy minister may know something about that.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to remind the Minister of my Member’s statement just briefly of the completion of the Fort McPherson expansion project. If you look in Hansard you’ll find it there.

The other question is for the community of Tsiigehtchic. I mentioned before that they would like to have an emergency airstrip as we don’t have an airstrip in the community. We have a lot of emergency situations there and I know the community would really like an airport. What are the plans for the community? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you. If the Member did raise that issue in the House in regard to the expansion of the airport in Aklavik, I will take a look back at that.

On the emergency airstrip for Tsiigehtchic, again, unless the Member, perhaps he’s raised that in a Member’s statement. I don’t recall that as well, but maybe we’ll go to the deputy minister for a response to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Committee, we’re on 9-4, Transportation. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister here on infrastructure and going forward in planning studies. The hub of the Sahtu airport is Norman Wells. With the increase of traffic, I believe Norman Wells is the second busiest airport in the North here. With the ranking so high – other than, of course, Yellowknife being the highest – does the Norman Wells Airport have the required support resources in that airport to sustain itself and to be prepared to deal with more traffic as the oil and gas systems are going forward in regard to the oil and gas exploration?

There are other airports in the North that also seem to have quite a bit of support services, and I’m not too sure if that justifies the amount of resources there than Norman Wells or even Tulita or Deline. They’re busy airports. I’d like to follow up from my colleague Mr. Bromley, who talked earlier about the going forward infrastructure planning and with the issue of Inuvik’s airport on the climate change and the dip in their airport. I’m not too sure if that would happen in the Sahtu, especially when there is going to be a lot of traffic coming into Norman Wells and that airport gets quite busy. When I was there this winter, quite a lot of people came off that airplane and the terminal was quite crowded at that time, so I wanted to ask the Minister in that regard.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his questions today. Certainly, the airport at Norman Wells, as I mentioned in response to one of the other Members earlier, we believe it is capable of handling the traffic that it does currently. That’s not to say that it could be impacted further down the road when we see more activity in the Sahtu.

Through the Corridors for Canada plan, we have I believe it’s $15 million earmarked over a few years to look at the development of that airport, specifically commercial development and availability of land for commercial use at the airport. I do think we have some funding that we can look at down the road to ensure that we have an airport there that’s going to service the needs of not only the travelling public but also industry and development in the region.

Certainly I look forward to the approval of the corridor proposal that the Minister talks about and see if it comes to fruition in regard to supporting the transportation issues in the Sahtu and specifically Norman Wells. When I was there I certainly saw a number of airplanes parked and it’s

quite crowded in there. Norman Wells, being the second busiest airport on a consistent basis in the Northwest Territories, I’d certainly like to see support for being in that category. We need to continue to support that. I’ll leave it at that.

I want to ask the Minister on the airport in Deline. I do thank the Minister for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk to the chief, the land corp president and self- government negotiator when we were in his office this morning, about the willingness of the community of Deline to look at a type of partnership that was had by the Department of Transportation some years ago with Fort Good Hope. I need the willingness and the partnership of your department to say yes, we can make a go of it rather than drag its feet on this request. I say that because Deline has been at it for a while. They want the standards and the designs of extending their runway, because right now, under the regulations, the Department of Transportation says you only can use a certain type of aircraft with a number of people, and that doesn’t make any type of business case for NorthWright Airlines to come into the community, if you can only fly a certain number of people into that community. That’s what they are stating.

The bottom line: Deline wants to get into a partnership They need to know the designs and standards and the specs of increasing the runway, and they will go out and help get the money and go in the partnership just like they did in Fort Good Hope, but I need your department officials to play with them, work hard with them and get them the money. They’re not asking for all the money. They want to work in partnership to extend their runway. That’s all they’re asking. Even at their small airport facility, it’s really crowded in there. I mean, I do acknowledge the amount of money this government has and where do you put the money, and for some of the airports I keep seeing a new loader or a new dump truck. It seems like sometimes those take priority, for whatever reason, than to help some of the smaller communities. I’m going to leave it at that.

I want to ask because this is important infrastructure for people in the Sahtu, especially when we have to fly. We don’t have an all-weather road and that’s our only means of transportation through some parts of the season. Airports are very important to us.

Just before I get to the issue with Deline and the runway extension there, I wanted to mention, also, that in Norman Wells we’re looking at the runway vulnerability assessment, and that is in response to Mr. Bromley’s questions, as well, on what we’re doing to deal with climate change. So we’re looking at the runway in Norman Wells and assessing that. The Member would know, as he travels through Norman

Wells quite often, that we’ve put grooves in that runway, as well, to help with the water, and that has been very successful as well. I wanted to mention that.

Getting to the issue with the extension in Deline, we did have a successful partnership with Fort Good Hope in the past. The extension for Deline, we continue to work towards updating the runway length study that we completed a couple of years ago. It’s not going to come with a small price tag though. If you look at even extending the runway to 5,000 metres, it’s going to be at a price tag of about four and a half million. Then if you went to 6,000 metres, that price would jump to seven and a half million. It’s not a small undertaking for the community. A community the size of Deline, how could they partner with us, you know. That’s a big amount of money. We’d be looking to continue to move forward, and I think we’re going to update the length study that we have.

We’ll continue to discuss with the community. I know the community is interested in getting some preliminary design, and we could provide that, a very rough estimate of that to the community so they have a better idea of the numbers that we’re talking about, and we can all be on the same page here, because I think the numbers that are there are substantial numbers.

Again, I think when you’re looking at the prospect of spending four and half to seven and a half million dollars expanding a runway in Deline, there has to be that economic driver, something that’s going to really necessitate the government spending that type of money on extending a runway in a community like Deline. But again, that’s not to say we don’t want to continue the dialogue, continue the discussion with the community. We will do that.

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the response back from the Minister on the runways. I specifically want to talk to Deline in regards to their willingness and their partnership, even though for the department, maybe for the government it seems like a small community. How do we erase the $4.5 million? Well, that is their business. Let them do it. They have been in business for long enough. Give them the ability. Give them the credence and the faith that they could come up with money. It’s for them to decide. All we do is lend our hand in a partnership and see what they can do. It might take them a year, it might take them two years, but it’s up to them. We’re not the boss. That is what Deline is saying. Give us the design. It’s a rough estimate. We will come and we will find the money ourselves. It has been proven in the past. Communities have come to that stage where they can raise money themselves to come into a partnership. There are many means of raising a partnership.

I ask the Minister if he would be open-minded and give Deline, have some faith into our people that they can raise money. This issue is important enough for them to have the extended runway that might create economic opportunities in the future. It is the chicken and egg type of scenario here. I’m thinking that the government is willing to be a partner; then I think we can go along with it. I hope the Minister has that openness to Deline’s unique approach. That’s all I’m asking, if we consider this approach with Deline. We will see where it goes within the two years of life of this government. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, as the Member knows, I have a great deal of respect for the community leadership in Deline. I never would underestimate their ability to raise money and to deliver on a project.

I think, at the end of the day, the House would still have to approve any funding that went into a runway extension in Deline. I think, perhaps as the next step, we could sit down with the community leaders, talk to them about what they believe the economic drivers are or the impetus to get the runway extension done and, again, continue the dialogue, because we really need to do that. We have to get a better understanding from them where they are looking to the future and how it is that a runway extension there will be beneficial to the community and to the region. I look forward to those discussions.

If at all, I can be available – I wouldn’t want it to be just department officials – I certainly would like to be at the meeting with community leaders and the deputy minister to discuss the future of that runway extension in Deline. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Continuing with questions, we have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up briefly on the application of EK35 product. Sometimes my memory slips on what this is exactly, so I just want to confirm. I have a feeling it’s a substance used for dealing with moisture on runways that suffer from frequent large temperature changes as a result of our changing climate. Am I in the right ballpark on what EK35 product is used for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s not for moisture control; it’s for dust control. It is a dust suppressant. I think Tulita had applied EK35 to the roads in Tulita a few summers back. We were there and it was a marked improvement on the amount of dust in the community. That is what EK35 used for, is a dust suppressant.

Mr. Chair, I wasn’t even close. Maybe I can get an update on what happened with the Inuvik situation. I guess that is an airport that, because of the frequent temperature changes, gets moisture build-up and it was causing jets to slide and so on; scary stuff. What was the resolution on that issue? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I believe the Member is getting to the issue of frost and friction on the runways and the inability of large aircraft to land. I know Inuvik experienced a few days like that last winter where it was a clear day but the runway couldn’t accept large planes. That’s something that we have avoided in Norman Wells where we have gone to the grooving of the runway in Norman Wells and we don’t experience that frost and friction. So that is something. It is not an inexpensive fix, but going forward I think we are going to take a look at how the grooving works again this winter in Norman Wells. If it continues to hold up and do the job, I think we may, at some point in time, be able to do that in Inuvik as well. Thank you.

That’s great. Thank you very much and thanks to the Minister. I know there were some real incidences there. It wasn’t just a concern that it might happen; it actually was happening. I appreciate that information.

I’m always open to hearing more on what we are up to there, but it sounds like we are doing some monitoring of the situation of the possible solution in Norman Wells. It sounds interesting.

I also just wanted to comment very quickly again on the wood pellet boiler plan for the Yellowknife Airport. Again, I’m very happy to see that sort of thing. Now the Minister is on the right track with energy projects. I just wondered if he would happen to have what sort of payback we’re talking about here with this installation and what sort of greenhouse gas reductions from the normal course of events that this will get us. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I thank the Member for the question. The wood pellet boiler that’s to be installed at the terminal building is budgeted to cost $750,000. It’s estimated to displace 320,000 litres of propane annually, generating an annual savings of $80,000 and a payback period of 9.4 years. Greenhouse gas emissions would be greatly reduced and, in fact, by 477 tonnes on an annual basis. Thank you.

That was all I had on this page. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Continuing on with questions, I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two quick questions here, and one that was already alluded to with the Inuvik runway. It was in the

news. There was a big dip and it did prevent some planes from landing there, and they had to make some adjustments and some emergency repairs to it. As a result, there was some history that was brought up in the news reports as well. There was a discussion on the type of geographical landscape that it was built on, that it could result in future issues with the runway as well.

Has the Minister and his department looked at that in terms of safety, in terms of one of the priorities of our government when dealing with infrastructure, as an opportunity to do a planning study or do some restructuring to that runway? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have done a great deal of work in that regard. We have had a geophysics summit on the Inuvik Airport back in 2011, I believe it was. For a more detailed response, I am going to go to Deputy Minister Neudorf with the technical answer for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Moses.

I appreciate the response and also see, looking at the project list for airports here, that the Inuvik terminal building, there was a planning study. Maybe I could get a quick update on that planning study. I believe the Inuvik Airport during our last infrastructure discussions, was recognized

as the oldest infrastructure in Inuvik, so it’s nice to see it on the list for a planning study. If I could just get a quick update to see where that is at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Members know, the facility has reached its end of service life and generally is in fair to poor condition. We had an issue last winter with a wind storm and the building suffered some damage as a result of that. So we need to move forward. Our long-term plan is to build a new air terminal building in Inuvik, so part of the process is to get a planning study underway. The money is going to hopefully be coming through the Corridors for Canada III proposal. Again, that’s a proposal, but we’re looking to build a new air terminal building in Inuvik and this is just part of the process of that happening. So we’re going to continue to move forward with the planning study in an effort to get a new air terminal building in Inuvik. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Committee, we’re on 9-4, Transportation, activity summary, airports, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $3.075 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Page 9-7, Transportation, activity summary, marine, infrastructure investment summary, infrastructure investments, $400,000. Does committee agree? Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of quick questions. I see there are plans to expand the new shop at the Peel River ferry. I was under the impression that it was going to be a stand-alone building. Is that going to be a stand-alone building?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. For that we’ll go to Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Mr. Blake.