Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Recently, the Member and I spoke to the mayor of Aklavik on the Willow River Bridge. Three-quarters of the bridge is in Inuvik and a quarter of that bridge is still sitting in Fort St. John. The plan is, of course, to bring that bridge and place it over the river, bridge the river with it. That’s what we’re hoping to do and that’s what the community wants to do to have that access road to the gravel source.

Right now, since we’ve had the discussion, our people in the Beaufort-Delta, DOT people have been talking to the community and we’re finding we’re getting more… Right now we kind of have a verbal idea from them on what is needed, so we’re just trying to get the written proposal right now. Once we’re able to get that, we’re… I mean, we want to fund that. We bought the bridge so we want to be able to put it in. It’s something we all want to do.

The Tsiigehtchic ferry or the ferry that crosses at Tsiigehtchic was actually faster in the wintertime because it didn’t have to stop in Tsiigehtchic. It just went straight across. It was a straight line across, so it did go across faster. So that’s true.

On the Dempster Highway, it was a shame that there was no capital available this past summer, but we’re hoping to get going again this summer. We’ve put in our supplementary portion, our GNWT portion, supplementary appropriation from the Building Canada and GNWT money together for the

work on the Dempster. What we’re thinking is that it’s going to be about $4 million to $4.5 million, most likely $4.5 million worth of work in there each summer. In this first package that we presented, the first bundle, I guess, we presented to the federal government was for four years.

We wanted to make sure that our proposal was successful at the federal level. We felt that putting a proposal in from Wrigley to Norman Wells, we had the greatest change of success than putting something in that went all the way to the Dempster, or even, for that matter, a proposal that went to Fort Good Hope, because to Norman Wells alone was a $700 million proposal and that $700 million proposal is not approved yet. We imagine that if we had put a $2 billion proposal in front of the federal government asking for a highway to be built to connect to the Dempster, it would be even longer in the approval process. We know that we have to start building the Mackenzie Valley Highway somewhere, and we felt that… This was a decision that was taken to Cabinet and it was felt that our best chance of success would be to take the highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells. That’s why that proposal is in. Of course, we all want to see the Mackenzie Valley Highway join the Dempster in the future. That’s something that would be very positive for the whole North.

The ferry contract, we are in the middle of determining a new relationship with people that are going to run the ferry. Right now the contract is due. We’ve had some discussion, our people in Inuvik have had some discussion with a Gwich’in organization. I’ve had some discussion with local organizations in both McPherson and Tsiigehtchic. We have had some discussion with Grizzly Marine, an individual company that is currently running the ferry for us. They have moved their manager to Fort McPherson, so that is something, trying to move some of the manager positions out of Inuvik and closer to where the action is. We are continuing with that, those negotiations, and we will keep the Member informed as we get closer to signing a new contract.

With the members on the other side of the Arctic Red River that are enduring some flooding problems, I would like to have the deputy minister respond to give some background. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Deputy minister.

Thank you, deputy minister. Next I have on my list Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of comments. The first one is on the winter crossing access road that leaves from Fort Providence. Formally it is the whole winter road section from the bridge to the peninsulas that jut out into the main river system. They are still there and there is interests by the people that reside in that area to try to upkeep and maintain that section of the road just for accessibility in terms of whether they might experience, hopefully not, an emergency situation and they have to drive into the community, either to the health centre or else perhaps dispatch maybe a fire truck out there for any reason if it’s needed.

For those purposes, on several occasions it has been noted that it would be nice to maintain that section of road, but at the same time, in the summertime we have a very high interest in terms of its accessibility by tourists that travel to the area at the winter crossing. They practically live out there. They’re not supposed to camp out there; it is day use areas, and they are basically out there to fish. It has become very interesting because, at the same time, it’s a highly valued area. I just wanted to see if the Minister would reassure the community that the community access programs that exist within the department will continue and that the community at some point will be able to access such a program like that.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We agree that’s the right program to do exactly what the Member is requesting. We encourage the community to put in an access road proposal to pay to keep that road open. We can have the local guys talk to the leadership over there, wherever we are going to receive a proposal from, to see if they could obtain that proposal from them for using the access road money to keep that road open.

Just some other points. I think my colleague touched on the ongoing system to come up with at least a unit of some kind that could be available for people that travel on the highway. I know that this has been ongoing. I think the Department of Transportation and two other

departments have been part of this exercise. They are trying to at least forge a semblance of unity in terms of trying to come up with an emergency system if it’s ever needed. I have heard the discussion in terms of the community fire departments are confined to communities, and if ever they are called upon to deal with a situation on the highway, there is always a question in terms of liability, costs, and so that is ongoing. This effort has been, at least from my understanding, for the past two years or so and it has been ongoing. I think at some point a decision has to be made in terms of ensuring the wellness and safety of the public and that this government will come up with at least a very clear system so that they can respond to emergency situations on the highway.

In that same light, basically it has been very exciting for small communities to be finally on the information highway. This is the expansion of the cellular coverage and it’s good. It has really enhanced communications. A lot of people are very active on social media. Young people are very tech savvy and are enthusiastically embracing the introduction of this technology into small communities.

Of course, there are some shortfalls. One of them is in cellular coverage, again in an emergency situation. There has been some discussions perhaps with NorthwesTel or with some other bodies that are able to provide those services, but if for example you have to have a high degree of traffic from Yellowknife all the way down to High Level, in between those communities sometimes you have blackouts and you don’t have a communications system. If something happens and you need to communicate with someone, timing and getting a response sometimes is critical. So if perhaps this government could encourage companies like NorthwesTel to see if they could expand and enhance their cellular coverage. If you drive down to Fort Providence, you should be able to at least link up to the cellular system at Blue Fish Creek and as you drive by the community and maybe as far south as Dory Point. So at least a person, if you have to, can walk to those points and make a call either to the RCMP or else the health centre to try and get some help. So if the department or government could encourage companies like that to try to, at least in the public interest, enhance cellular services.

Other points of course my colleagues have raised were the forest fires, the interruptions it caused in terms of people’s travelling, the roads being closed. This past summer was a very big experience. I think we learned a lot from it. People were practically stranded. People were stranded in their vehicles for perhaps maybe five days, seven days and these people have kids it was very hot during that time too. Hopefully we’ve learned so that perhaps this summer we will have a contingency

plan in terms of how we’re going to be responding in the interest of public safety, of course, and at the same time in the interest of the travelling public.

The other thing, too, is that because of the burnt areas we’re going to have a high number of people that are picking mushrooms, a lot of activity in those areas. So, the department should have an understanding of how they’re going to deal with a situation like that.

The other point is the multi-modal strategy. I understand that’s ongoing. I think they’ve mentioned the idea of a rail expansion, but whether it’s in the works or maybe perhaps discussion.

Another idea is the marine transportation. There’s been discussion of perhaps dredging to make the barges more accessible to the communities, and we have to realize that the big lake is frozen right until about the middle of June. The Mackenzie River is free of ice through mid-May and it just makes sense that perhaps a port of some kind or a marine transportation hub perhaps, be imported to Fort Providence. I think that should be discussed at some point.

The other point I wanted to make is in terms of the tolls for private vehicles. I think we try not to create any disincentives for people that are in the small business sector. We need to be in a supportive capacity. Becoming a hindrance to small business growth should not be the role of government. We should be encouraging them. For those reasons, we should seriously consider how it is that we collect tolls on private vehicles that cross the bridge, in some instances.

The other thing is that I think we need to do a concerted effort to ensure that young people get their licences, you know, simultaneously when they graduate from high school and not wait until they’re about 26 or 30 years old to get their licences. It should just be a logical step. If you graduate, you should have your licence to drive. Mahsi.

Again, I can reiterate the fact that we will continue to work with MACA and HSS to develop some sort of emergency highway coverage. We’re working with the highway emergency and learning protocol, like I’ve indicated previously. We think it’s needed. It’s a matter of figuring out the logistics of how, how to do it. So, I mean, once the three departments are able to determine whose responsibility this would lie under. Right now it’s shared. The responsibility appears to be shared. We’re responsible for the highway, MACA is responsible for the municipal service that has the emergency vehicle, and potentially Health is responsible for the people that could end up injured and maybe who own the ambulances and so on. Now in the city of Yellowknife, for example, the city owns the ambulances.

So, all of those types of details must be worked out. I will have a discussion with my colleagues, maybe, to put some sort of timelines together for us to come up with something. I think we have dragged this on for a long time between the departments, so maybe it’s time for us to put some timelines together to see what we can do and determine when we can do it.

As a department, we encourage larger areas for cellular coverage. We recognize that once you drive around in Alberta you always have coverage. We know that. We do have the dead spots. You leave here, 25 to 30 kilometres from here you lose your cell service, pick it up before Rae, it drops off the other side of Behchoko and so on and so forth. If we could open the coverage completely that would be ideal. We’re not responsible for communication towers as a department, but we do encourage that they put them along the highway so that the coverage can be there.

The fires, we’re hoping that we’ve learned. We can’t help the individuals that were stranded. I mean, we couldn’t help that they were stranded. We recognize all of the work that the people in Fort Providence did to make lives a little easier for individuals that were stranded in Providence, and many people commented on people bringing food, water, blankets, whatever to the people that were stranded. We certainly appreciate that. As a government we thought that the community did a real good job of trying to support. I think the same type of thing would have happened had there been a lot of traffic near other communities, but we certainly heard about that in Fort Providence and that’s something we were happy that occurred.

Right now the rail service to Hay River is something that, as you know, we’ve talked about quite a bit. A recent announcement, or a recent upcoming announcement I suppose, I could say by the federal government to put maybe more infrastructure money into the railhead. So we’re hoping that at least the rail is improved to Hay River. Now, getting any rail out into Fort Providence I think could be a difficult thing. It would be a major federal project for sure by the federal government, a real major project for them to put rail out there. It’s an interesting thing on the marine because Cooper, a company out of BC does operate out of Fort Simpson and they’re able to move things on the Mackenzie River fairly quickly as a result of what the Member indicated, the Mackenzie River opens and they’re able to travel from Simpson up a lot sooner. It’s an NTCL decision whether or not they think they should have an operation out of Fort Providence, so it’s not something that the Department of Transportation would involve itself in. We would, as a government, utilize the service for sure if they were using NTCL out of Fort Providence. We utilize the service out of Hay River now. So I guess that’s something that the Member would have to discuss with that company.

I wasn’t 100 percent clear on the Deh Cho Bridge tolls. All I can say is that the people with private plates don’t pay tolls and people with commercial plates that are hauling and in vehicles over 4,500 kilograms are paying tolls. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a few things I want to mention here with Transportation. The first is an observation that there was a 60 percent increase or variance from the budget we passed about this time last year for Transportation and the budget we look like we are ending up with. So, obviously a lot of changes to the budget during the year with the appropriations and so on.

Most of that was Vote 4 dollars, but $9 million of the $60 million increase, a $56 million increase was Vote 1 dollars. This was at a time when we’ve had a 50 percent reduction in net fiscal benefits. We had over $100 million in unanticipated and unplanned climate-related expenses and many other issues to face.

I am just wondering: would the Minister be able to forecast a little bit of where he anticipates this budget to be ending up and how much of that will be revenues and what we might be looking on down the line for Vote 1 dollars and Transportation’s budget, whether it’s going to be anything like the current year which is not all said and done yet.

There are a couple of projects that are eight-year projects for me so far. I’ve been through a number of Ministers of Transportation. It’s still unresolved and little progress, and important to the safety of my constituents. The first is the Detah road. Several years ago we finally had 4.5 kilometres reconstructed. That highway was never constructed. It was slapped together, as you know, and is in desperate need of reconstruction. So, I’m wondering when we will complete reconstruction of the Detah access road. I think we’d love to have an access road even in the condition of the Inuvik one.

The second one is the highway crossing between Niven Lake and the four-way stop entering Yellowknife. Again, this is now the eighth year of watching people walk along that highway, on the very edge of that highway, as we saw this morning and every morning, and this can sometimes be kids, strollers in the summertime and so on. It’s a serious issue. I appreciated quite a number of years ago when the Minister of Transportation finally put in some street lighting to help with that. Drivers have complained as much as pedestrians because it’s so dangerous and they know it. They’ve narrowly missed hitting people. Again, this has fallen through the cracks because it’s a city issue, it’s a GNWT issue, it’s your issue, it’s not my issue and so on. Meanwhile, the safety of our residents is

compromised. For me, it’s disgusting. I’d like to see someone finally take an accountable role and get that resolved.

I heard about the Inuvik study. The money was budgeted for a study on that situation for the Inuvik Airport. I also believe I heard that money was being carried over. I want to know why that work wasn’t done, when it’s going to be done, and I’d like to know what other carry-overs we can expect from this department for work that hasn’t been completed or you are anticipating not being able to complete. That’s all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to have the deputy minister or the director respond on the variance and the net fiscal benefit information and the Vote 1 revenues.

For the Detah road, we have all of the money in place now to reconstruct the Detah road completely.

We have some money in capital that we’ve spent and then the rest of it we’ve put in year one of the Building Canada Plan. This year when we did our first bundle, that’s work that’s going to be done under Building Canada Plan. The entire amount to finish that road, 100 percent, is in year one, so we’re pleased with that.

The Niven road, it was difficult to come up with a solution. The people would cross the road at Niven. Realistically the only safe way is an overpass or underpass, but at some point they can’t stay on the Niven side because if they keep staying on the Niven side as they get to the Explorer Hotel they’d come to a rock face and it’s additionally unsafe there. So they do have to cross and, unfortunately, in order to safely walk towards town, they do have to cross right at Niven. I guess we could come up with a solution. Like I said, we’d build something over top of the road, but it would be a very expensive solution. We know that the traffic has been slowed down to the other side, so at one point you were able to pick up speed again as we corner towards Niven, but now the speed sign has… You can only pick up speed, from 45 kilometres to 60, on the other side of Niven. Plus, we put in better lighting. Those are the things we were able to do that were feasible to do at that point. Certainly, there has to be a solution, but it’s expensive, and if we had to build a walking path from there all the way into the city on the other side of the Explorer, it would be another very expensive solution.

I’m going to, I guess, ask the deputy to speak on the variances and fiscal benefit Vote 1 and also why we’re asking for the Inuvik Airport. Actually, I’ll just briefly touch on it. It actually had to do with trying to come up with what we think is a good solution that’s going to work. But with that, I’ll ask

the deputy minister to respond to some of the Member’s questions.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Deputy Minister Neudorf.

Thank you, deputy minister. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for those responses. It’s good to hear about the Detah road.

Might I suggest a flashing yellow light would not be very expensive for the highway between Niven Lake and the four-way stop?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will look at that solution. We will have our engineers… I suppose it will have to do with the city, also. The engineers and the city will take a look at that, the flashing light.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Committee, noting the time, I will rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been meaning to recognize the Pages in the House today and I’d like to mention a number from Weledeh. Grace Clark, Niva Stephenson, Harvey Fells and Hunaifa Malik and any other Pages who have been looking after us for the week, it’s greatly appreciated. Mahsi.