Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise, too, with my nice pink shirt, but I will talk today about the spring and the effects of spring coming up.

The days are getting longer. The weather is still not getting better, but in Hay River in the next week they’re starting to work on the ponds and we’re going to have our next Pond Hockey Tournament.

The Pond Hockey Tournament this year is March 20th to the 22nd and those teams that want to sign up, please sign up now. You only need four people to be a team and you can come out on the Hay River rinks and skate your heart away. We’re promising that there’s going to be warmer weather towards the end of March and we’re looking forward to the events. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my honour to rise today to recognize and pay tribute to a Yellowknife pioneer, a true Northerner in spirit and action. Barb Bromley passed away on February 15th here in Yellowknife. She’s been described as a pillar of the community, and our community is leaning due to the loss of that pillar.

As we’ve heard, Mrs. Bromley came north in 1948 and never left. Her life’s work was nursing, and as Yellowknife developed and grew, she advanced public health nursing services in Yellowknife and beyond. She was instrumental in starting the NWT Registered Nurses’ Association and in establishing “well baby” clinics, Meals on Wheels program and immunization clinics.

Barb Bromley was also well known as an advocate and an activist. She was perhaps best known for her work in later years to advance care for seniors in Yellowknife. Aven Manor is the result of her work, and that one seniors home has grown into a community for seniors, providing many levels of care and housing for Yellowknife and NWT seniors.

Because of her personal commitment to meaningful engagement and her friendship with thousands of individuals, Barb Bromley has been described as someone who loved people, who loved working on teams and who loved to help people out. She was recognized for this work with the Commissioner’s Award for Public Service in 1981 and the Order of Canada in 2001 for exceptional volunteerism.

The first bed and breakfast in Yellowknife that started in 1984 was Barb’s Bed and Breakfast. Mrs. Bromley remained in touch with many of the people who stayed at her B and B. She was a people person and she was also a family person, the matriarch at the centre of a large family.

Several rituals emerged over the years. Saturday morning buns at mom/grandma/great-grandma’s house and the August long weekend at Victory Lake were two of those family and neighbourhood events. The Bromley Christmas cookie exchange party is a well-known Yellowknife social event that’s been running since 1954, something I’ve had the pleasure of attending for a number of years.

Barb Bromley was a huge part of the history and the fabric of the Yellowknife community and she will be sorely missed. As her son Bob has said, “She was a giant in every respect, except in her physical stature.”

A service will be held for Mrs. Bromley this Saturday, February 28th, 2:00 p.m. at Sir John Franklin School. This will be a chance to celebrate the amazing life of a warm-hearted, successful, positive and genuinely good person. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late Tobie Antoine Marlowe and the late Vanessa “Dzee Dzee” Marie Marlowe. Tobie and Vanessa were both raised in Lutselk’e and lived together for over 17 years and both tragically passed away in the home community of Lutselk’e on Tuesday, February 10, 2015.

The late Tobie Antoine Marlowe was born December 10, 1978, and passed away at the age of 36. Tobie was adopted by the late Pierre and the late Helen Marlowe. He was the youngest of two brothers and two sisters. Tobie was raised in and always lived in his hometown of Lutselk’e. Tobie was affectionately called sets’i bebecho – my big baby – by his dad, Pierre, up until his last days. Tobie was fondly called “my baby brother” by sister Evelyn. Tobie was a member of the Canadian Rangers since 1999 and dedicated 18 years of service. He was employed as a caribou monitor for the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation wildlife department at the time of his passing.

The late Tobie Marlowe was well known for his joking nature, and loved being out on the land fishing, hunting and trapping, his love and respect for his family and friends, and always made special efforts to attend family functions and events and, above all, always made an effort to provide traditional food for the elders.

Tobie was predeceased by his parents, Pierre and Helen Marlowe, and brothers Ernie and Charlie. Tobie is survived by his son, Riley Tobie Marlowe; his brother Sonny; sisters Evelyn and Mary Carr; biological mother, Terri Enzoe; biological father, Joseph Catholique; half-brothers, Kyle and Andrew Enzoe; and half-sister, Monique; and many nieces and nephews.

The late Vanessa Marlowe was born March 31, 1982, and passed away at the age of 32. Vanessa has always lived in her hometown of Lutselk’e. Vanessa was well known always for being full of laughter. She was forthright. She was very protective of her family. She volunteered with the girls’ group, visited everyone in the community, and she was known for remembering everyone’s phone number, and she loved completing puzzles. She had a stack of completed puzzles upon her passing.

Vanessa was a stay-at-home mother and enjoyed being there for her son and family. Vanessa is survived by her son, Riley Marlowe; parents George and Celine Marlowe; five sisters, Elizabeth Boucher, Eileen Marlowe, Agatha Laboucan, Bernice Marlowe and Amanda Marlowe; her brother, Darren Marlowe; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Mr. Speaker, my sincerest condolences go out to Tobie and Vanessa’s 12-year-old-son, Riley Marlowe, to Vanessa’s parents, brothers, sisters, niece and nephews, aunts, uncles and many friends; and to Tobie’s brother, sisters, biological parents, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and also many friends, and to all of the people in Lutselk’e. This has been so difficult for everyone.

Tobie and Vanessa “Dzee Dzee” Marlowe will be sadly missed by all those who knew them. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pages are an integral part of the operation of this Chamber and we’ve been blessed to have Pages from all over the Northwest Territories come and work with us. I really do appreciate all the work that all the Pages have done and I’d like to thank all the Pages that we’ve had over the years and the Pages that we’ll have in the future. In particular, I’d like to recognize a number of Pages who happen to live in the Great Slave riding who have been with us here since last Monday and are going to be with us here until March 12th, and those individuals are Shiri MacPherson, Chad Martin, Elizabeth Thomas and Anne Thomas. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you for all you do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I’d like to welcome everybody here in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This being anti-bullying day, I thought I’d try to twist my questions into questions to the Minister of Transportation in the Sahtu. Our roads are rough, rough and rough. We have 1,444 kilometres of winter roads. That’s leading from Wrigley to Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake and to Deline.

I want to ask the Minister, given his recent awareness of our winter roads, especially from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope, and the annual hand game tournament this weekend in Fort Good Hope, what is the Minister doing to fix the potholes, to fix washboard alley? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was fortunate to read the letter that was written by one of the members from the Sahtu, indicating how bad the road was and so on. We had not anticipated that the roads were that bad. We thought they would be improving.

When the Member and I drove on it, it was very early and it was rough, but the department considered that it would be improving. We recognize that we do need more money to continue to improve the winter road and that we need more money for watering and more grading cycles to be able to smooth out that road.

At this time we have a contract in place and the contractor is fulfilling their obligation. However, sometimes when we have a particularly rough winter road, it’s difficult for the contractor to keep the road as smooth as we’d like it. Thank you.

For example, from Norman Wells to Fort Good Hope is 147 kilometres. It is taking people four and a half to five hours to drive that section at 20 kilometres an hour. Compare that to other highways in the Northwest Territories, it’s ludicrous. You would not stand for it.

What is the Minister doing to either increase the maintenance or start the Arctic paving program and putting water on our roads so that our vehicles do not rattle apart and are not held by duct tape to get on the Sahtu winter roads?

Each year as we do the winter roads in all the areas, as we do in Sahtu, we have winter road teams. After the indication from the Member that the roads were particularly rough going into Fort Good Hope, we’ve deployed a winter road team. They’re looking at the worst spots, and we’re going to put some water on the worst spots and we’re going to grade it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, for the Minister’s information, there are a lot of “worst spots” on the winter road. We also have people who are servicing the Sahtu. We have a fuel company from Hay River, Bassett Petroleum, starting to haul fuel into the Sahtu. Their operators have given a list of situations on the winter road.

From the observations of Bassett Petroleum who have been on the winter road because they’re doing the fuel haul to Deline and the other communities, is the Minister taking their comments to heart to look at areas that they’ve indicated that need some tender loving care?

As the Member knows, we’re very approachable; the department is approachable. When we get information from Members, we do try to attend to the areas that are in the worst condition. We know that we don’t have the money to improve every section of that road to what the members of Sahtu would like to see; however, we’re addressing the worst areas.

As I indicated, we’re approachable and we do want to fix the roads to the best of our ability with the money that we have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our winter roads can only last for three months and then they close down. I want to ask the Minister, given his assessment and the questions that we’ve been exchanging today and looking at this on a going-forward basis, can the Minister commit that next year we can have some type of pre-meeting with all the communities, contractors and operators and look at our winter roads and have a thorough discussion? We are still dealing with these issues from the past and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better, especially now that we don’t have additional funding from industry to put on our winter roads.

I will commit to having preconstruction meetings once the contractors for the winter road are selected next year in the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. About a year ago I asked the Minister of Transportation some questions and they were based on a commitment from the previous Minister of Transportation, a commitment he made in December of 2011, and I need to ask those questions again. The questions are around the review or analysis or a comprehensive review of the Deh Cho Bridge.

My first question to the Minister is: What is the status of the review, the analysis, the comprehensive investigation of the bridge project?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few deficiencies on the Deh Cho Bridge that we are continuing to repair. We believe that the bridge is very, very close to addressing all the deficiencies, although we will probably continue to always do a little bit of work on the bridge. After that, my understanding is that there was a commitment to do a retrospective analysis of how the construction of the bridge went. At this point we are looking at the possibility of doing that.

Thanks to the Minister for his comments. It was on February 13, 2014, when I asked the Minister whether or not the work on the bridge was completed, and his answer: “There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge.” I’m a little surprised to hear that now there are deficiencies and we can’t start this analysis, this investigation, one that was supposed to be completed almost two years ago now.

To the Minister: He says now we have deficiencies and maybe then we’re going to start this retrospective analysis. When can we expect results from this analysis?