Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Next on my list I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just following up specifically on Highway No. 8. It’s really interesting here about the half negotiated contract with that one, but just in terms of the amount of rainfall

and the amount of work that’s gone into the

work that was done on the highway, is there any extra dollars that would be going into the construction and the surfacing and resurfacing and continued maintenance on the highway, considering the amount of rainfall that we had and the damage that it’s done on the highways?

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to ask the deputy to respond to that.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Moses.

Thank you. Just continuing on with that, I see there is a lot of highways mobile equipment that’s being purchased this year and when you look at the substantiation sheet there in a few places here, I see Fort McPherson is getting a loader. I was just kind of wondering, because over the wintertime and due to the weather, sometimes that section of highway gets closed for the amount of days and lack of equipment sometimes results in prolonged closures of the road and not being able to open it a lot sooner and you get a lot of people stuck in either Eagle Plains or trying to go back and you look at the food issue and supplies. So I was just won

dering if that was something that we’ve seen

over the year, whether or not there might be some type of mobile equipment, either purchase more in Fort McPherson or Inuvik to keep that highway open, so when the highway does close due to weather and snow buildup that we have equipment on there working right away in different sections so we can get traffic moving a lot sooner than later. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have equipment strategically placed at James Creek, McPherson and we’re trying to, when there’s bad weather and the highway’s blowing, get it open as quickly as possible. We’re not thinking that adding more pieces of equipment will keep the road open. Often the road is closed on the Yukon side. So we don’t think it’s really a lack of equipment, rather just conditions of weather on the Dempster.

One question the Minister made reference to is on the Yukon side. I know we’ve put a lot of resources into our highways and obviously referenced here in the infrastructure budget. I know the question came up earlier in this government, whether or not our Minister speaks directly with the Yukon government to see what kind of investments they’re doing to upkeep their side of the Dempster Highway. In the summertime it can get really bad in certain sections and then, as you mentioned, we do a good job to try and open up the highway in the wintertime. On the Yukon side, are they putting in as much effort as I think they should, and whether or not the Minister will make a commitment to speak to his counterpart to try to get those investments in place for a better road? We really promote tourism and now the Inuvik-Tuk Highway is going to be opening up. We want to have a safe driving road so that they’re not turning around at Eagle Plains and not continuing on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Our regional people are in contact with the regional people from Yukon on a regular basis. I have not, as Minister, had the Minister-to-Minister

discussions

about

the

Dempster. If there was an opportunity to do so in the future, certainly I would take the opportunity to discuss the Dempster Highway with the Yukon Minister. I will get some information from the department. I know that not only the regions but I think at a higher level the departments have communicated. If an opportunity arises where we need to discuss the Dempster, I will certainly take that opportunity.

I don’t think we should be waiting for

an opportunity to have those discussions. I think that we’ve got a highway that we’re putting millions, hundreds of millions of dollars into and you want to give people, when they start seeing that, they want to come up and go to the Arctic Ocean and I think as Minister and leader for infrastructure of highways we

shouldn’t wait for an opportunity, we should take the initiative and start th

ose discussions. If we’re going

to be opening up coast to coast to coast, people are going to have to drive through the Yukon to get up to Tuk and that should be a selling factor right there to the Yukon to say people are going to be driving through your jurisdiction, you guys should put some dollars into the infrastructure as well. I don’t think we should be waiting for an opportunity. It’s something we should be initiating, considering the big infrastructure project we have going right now. Can I just get a commitment or a response? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, the deputies have been in touch and have had many discussions about that highway. I will commit to calling the Yukon Transportation or Highways Minister and have that discussion.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Next on my list I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The

work

for

2016

will

be

embankment

improvements from kilometre 20 to 23, and following aggregate production, widening, strengthening and surface prep, drainage improvements from that same spot, 20 to 23, and then we’ll be doing some crushing and aggregate production in a pit at kilometre 3, so I guess

it’s at the very beginning of

the highway. I’d like to ask if I could have the deputy add to what I’m saying for the work that will be going on on Highway No. 7.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Thank you, deputy minister. Committee, I’d just remind you that we can’t really discuss some of the detailed numbers. If we’re looking for general information, that’s fine, but if we’re looking for detailed numbers for competitive reasons and bidding process, we need to keep it to the general for the capital budget here. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just in terms of highways, culverts, bridges and chipseal overlay project, I know that one of the

priorities of my communities is we’re excited to see the ongoing development of chipseal between Providence junction and towards Simpson and we’ve still got quite a bit of a ways to go yet. I’d just like to see what the department’s plans are for continuing chipsealing between Providence junction and Checkpoint. I know that we repaired some of that chipseal, I think it was 18 kilometres from Providence junction towards Fort Simpson, and there’s still another 18 kilometres of chipseal that should be saved. I would like to ask the Minister if they’re going to address that as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For a more detailed respo

nse I’d like to ask the

deputy to respond to the Member.