Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minster.
Debates of June 23rd, 2016
This is page numbers 763-836 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was mr chair.
Topics
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer that to the Deputy Minister Neudorf.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of our positions have job descriptions with them that would layout the duties associated with it. Along with that job description it would talk about the requirements to be qualified for the job, some of which would obviously require a professional engineering designation. And the positions would tend to be specialized, so for example we have people in our bridge section, structure section, that are bridge engineers and are specialized in that, engineers in our highway reconstruction section, specialized in highway reconstruction. So that as a profession you get additional experience in your profession, you obviously will build up experience in that profession and we'll, you know, rely on that expertise to help manage our infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
June 23rd, 2016
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Shane Thompson Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for his answer. I'm just trying to understand if you have two people why you need to send two people that look after culverts and they're in the vehicles and going down together. Is there a rationale for it? Could the deputy minister or Minister explain the rationale for having you know two staff to go check culverts? Is it a safety issue or is it an engineering requirement? It's just something that has been brought to my attention numerous times by other people in the communities seeing vehicles going there with two people and they're engineers checking, you know, signs and culverts where other engineers go down the road, so I got the first answer, but now the second one would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll defer it to Deputy Minister Neudorf. Thank you.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no special requirement for engineers to always have a buddy, but it would depend on the particular circumstances, situation. A lot of times it is a safer situation if there are two individuals in the vehicle driving long distances. Sometimes the requirements of the job will take two people as well if you're out inspection or doing a job. There is no special requirement that there has to be two people. It's just the way it would work out and I'm sure that there are many times that we would send one person out in a vehicle as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Michael Nadli Deh Cho
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my riding there's at least two communities that have a highway maintenance camp and there's been a pullback of resources from the communities. I just wanted to get an understanding in terms of the scope of regionalization effort whether this is temporary or this is reposition of resources so that at least you have key personnel on the ground serving smaller communities from regions. So could the Minister provide an explanation in terms of the scope of regionalization of the highways and operations? Mahsi.
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of our operations, airports, and highways are regionalized, so we have camps located throughout the NWT and communities that take care of our operations. That's the way we've been doing it since DOT was created and since the infrastructure was devolved from the federal government in the '80s. So there's been no change in that. In fact, over the years as we've had the opportunities to identify needs and address those needs, the growth that has been in transportation has been in the regional operations to deal with the incremental challenges that come from changing climate, increasing traffic, those types of things. In terms of the numbers here, there is a net reduction of five positions here. Those are all related to a reduction initiative that we have and in the South Slave so in Hay River and Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Michael Nadli Deh Cho
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it's good to know that the new changes have been taking place in terms of the operations of the highways, some operations and it's encouraging that once again I've heard the word forever, which is good. The other point that I wanted to make and to seek some clarification: is this in terms of the pullback of Enterprise in terms of whether that's temporary in terms of maybe decommissioning the operations there and getting service from Hay River. Can I get some clarification on that? Mahsi.
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Robertson
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are transitioning the Enterprise highway maintenance crew to work out of the Hay River facility right now. As the Member is aware, we have not been using that facility for quite a while now due to some issues with the building. What we found is that the crew is working out of the Hay River camp actually provide better service to the high traffic area of Highway No. 2 as they can actually leave and start doing the road maintenance right from the facility in Hay River. Highway No. 2, the heaviest traffic area there is getting ploughed sooner and faster and in time for the early morning commute. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in the Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters