Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re just getting some detail. I’ll ask the deputy to respond to the question.

Thank you. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department is working with DND doing some studies for that possibility that we would handle the larger jets in Inuvik.

With that work that they’re doing with

DND, is a report expected to come to the House or whether or not the GNWT would have to cover any costs that might be associated with it, federal, like a joint partnership? I know we are doing a lot of, I guess, sovereignty work and a lot of exercises. We had a big exercise this year with the military, and I’m just wondering if the GNWT would also be committing any type of infrastructure dollars to that and if the report will be coming to this House as well.

So far we have come to the House for money for the studies and we are continuing at a pace of DND. We don’t know when there may be a report as a result of our studies or a plan as a result of the studies, but when one is developed, when we do write a report or a plan on the extension of the airport, we will come back to the House with the plan.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Committee, we are on page 82, airports, infrastructure investments, $1.251 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I notice on here we have a product listing called runway stabilization. It talks about a special liquid blend we are going to be applying to runways. Can we get a little bit of information about what is EK-35 liquid application? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. EK- 35 is on the small runways, gravel runways. It is a non-corrosive product that also covers the surface and does prevent dirt from flying up into the air as well. It is essentially a product that they use for the airports so that there is dust abatement on the strips, all the gravel strips.

I know that the department in the past has used products call Trembind. I know they ran into problems with it as a dust control suppressant and it had some environmental impacts. Has this EK-35 met all standards we have for any type of environmental assessment that it would not affect or harm any of our wildlife in the communities? Thank you.

The product is approved by Boeing and it doesn’t corrode the aircraft. It is a good product and there should be no problem with it. The other product was used a long time ago and we no longer use it.

Is it safe to say that if I was to look up EK-35 online as a synthetic organic dust control product, it would have no problems whatsoever passing any type of health concerns? Thank you.

There is no indication there are any health concerns on the application of EK-35 on our runways.

I would caution the department, if they can provide the committee any of the facts surrounding the safety of the synthetic organic material called EK-35, my quick research does show that there has been some environmental ecological problems with the product in certain jurisdictions, so I would be inclined to make sure that we are doing our due diligence before we start applying this on all of our highways and our airports.

Will the department commit to providing committee some background in terms of the ecological and environmental safety of this product? Thank you.

We are prepared to do that.

I notice also on here we have a new airport sweeper, obviously for the Yellowknife Airport. I just notice that, not knowing the breakdown, I don’t want to run the competitiveness of any type of bid, what type of valuation do these airport sweepers have in terms of replacement for new? I guess, what is the range of new pricing we may be looking at for this new sweeper? Thank you.

Our current sweeper is 19 years old. We have budgeted $250,000 to replace that sweeper.

The old sweeper that is going to be replaced, does it have any value? Is it going to be re- profiled and used elsewhere in our airport fleet? Thank you.

It is possible that it has some value. It will likely be surplused. If there is some value, it could possibly be moved for use on a smaller strip.

So, it is safe to say that we don’t

know if it has any residual value that we are going to be surplusing and selling it, or are we able to bring it up to another airport or maybe use it as a backup? It sounds like a pretty expensive piece of machinery. I don’t think these units… Maybe age might be an issue. I don’t think these units see a lot of traction time. Again, I am just trying to see how, again, repurposing these very expensive pieces of equipment that have very low hours. Thank you.