Mr. Chair, in the organization chart I did a little creative drawing and I put in a little box that says superintendent for the Sahtu. It’s really simple, Mr. Chair. Again, just to ask the department to keep that in mind, to consider being creative with that type of thinking.
I do want to say, in all seriousness, my appreciation for the winter roads we have open and the contractors this winter. The contractors have done an excellent job, despite the amount of money that they need. I think all the contractors on our winter roads in the North do a really good job. We have probably the best heavy equipment operators in the North here. We have given them so much money and they do what they have to do with it. So I want to thank them first of all and then thank the department for the region – I come from the Sahtu – with regards to listening to the people on the additional Arctic paving program that the Minister has done some work with the staff to get some of the dollars into the roads. He and I heard, when we took a trip to Tulita and to Fort Good Hope, about the driving conditions that we subject our drivers to go through each day for the next couple months
when the winter roads are open. I want to thank the Minister for taking the trip with me.
I also want to mention to the Minister about some of the approaches for the winter road. From time to time we get written observation reports, we get verbal reports on different sections of the winter roads that need additional care and need additional work, and sometimes the approaches to the bridges need to be looked at. I want to tell the Minister that there’s one bridge, called the Oscar Creek Bridge, that is really out in nowhere and it’s been sitting there for a couple years and it’s quite embarrassing for the department and ourselves to see this bridge here. Even though it’s been on the books, we really haven’t moved on that bridge and we keep putting it off every year. We all seem to put that bridge off and find other priorities that jump the queue, so to speak, and they’ve just moved this bridge back. I’m not sure of the rationale behind that type of thinking on our infrastructure.
I want to let the Minister know about the airports, the terminal, and Deline is very, very small, especially when they have a lot of traffic. People are quite crowded in that terminal building in Deline. I look forward to seeing some work being done to see what they can do to increase that terminal building similar to what they’ve done in Fort Good Hope in regards to that piece of infrastructure.
I want to talk about the marine. I look forward to the Minister meeting with his federal counterpart to look at dredging of the waterway systems in the Mackenzie River. I know Hay River has talked about dredging around their area. There are also areas along the Mackenzie River that have been identified. There are some areas that are not high on the ranking of dredging, but we did listen to the mayor of Norman Wells talk about the dredging around the dock areas and we certainly heard the people in Fort Good Hope talk about the low waters and the difficulties they had getting their supplies into that community.
The proposal for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, we look forward to that being reviewed by the federal government and seeing how we can move on that proposal. It’s much needed infrastructure in our region. People in Tulita and the Sahtu area talk about this next big proposal for the Northwest Territories. In saying that, inside the Mackenzie Valley proposal there are two areas I want to talk about. The Norman Wells Canol Creek proposal that the Minister talked about is a living document; it’s on his desk. This is to look at getting some work done prior to the big Mackenzie Valley Highway proposal. It’s part and parcel to the work there.
The people in Tulita said the Bear River Bridge was off and is now back on again. The Bear River Bridge is on the radar to make sure this infrastructure is something that they want to move on.
I do want to close off by saying thank you to the Minister for the continued support on the very valuable Community Access Roads Program. It’s a program that’s really appreciated by the people who can take advantage of it in our small communities. If you link that Access Roads Program to the unemployment, you’ll see it makes sense. We don’t have activity like there is in some of the communities or regions. Some of our communities or regions look forward to that type of program the government can offer and the government does support. So from a small community perspective, I want to say thank you for maintaining that funding level. That was a very smart move to continue to move this and I want to thank you, Mr. Minister.
The last part I want to say is I will continue working with you on the road licensing issues. I know your department and myself had discussions and we were trying to figure out ways to deal with some of the unique issues we have to deal with in our small communities, the way the licence system is worked out there. I look forward to seeing some kind of licence driving programs in our small communities such as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment bringing those programs into our high schools or even to the Aurora College centres so people can take advantage of these types of skill development and programs offered by the Department of Transportation. That’s all for my comments, Mr. Chair.