Mr. Speaker, what is the average estimated cost of a ferry vessel replacement?

Upgrading the Louis Cardinal to a larger vessel wouldn't be cost effective at this time we believe. But to answer the question directly, it's approximately $10 million to replace that ferry.

Mr. Speaker, I know that may sound like a lot, but actually for a vessel that size I think that's a very good deal myself. You know, with the infrastructure that we are spending, you know, $100 million, $200 million here, $450 million over here, I mean I think that's a small price to pay here. But moving forward, will the department start examining ways to address this cost and meet this challenge? For example, undertaking the planning study?

Mr. Speaker, the department data indicates that the Louis Cardinal is sufficient and it meets the adequate needs of the capacity of the region right now, and we continue to track that with the data received on the volume of traffic on the Louis Cardinal. The other thing we do, and the Member stated, we're throwing money around with capital investments. We just replaced the bottom of the Louis Cardinal in the last cycle year, in the last season, and we're about to rebuild the engines on the Louis Cardinal this coming winter.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know with the overhaul of the hull, the engines, all the work that has been done to the engines, I believe it's up for replacement myself; it has over 25,000 hours as I've been told. That's almost $2 million there that could have been put towards a new vessel. We have to start planning out how our spending or maintaining our equipment rather than replacing. I know a lot of that work has been done to a lot of our buildings, but, you know, we have to start planning properly here. Will the Minister ensure that a planning study has been taken on the Louis Cardinal?

As I've stated, we use management tools to make strategic operational decisions on our equipment and our assets and we will continue to use that, and moving forward, I will update the Member where this is at in the queue. But, as I've said, we have very limited funds moving forward and we need to stretch these out across the whole Northwest Territories.

Masi. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about Northland Utilities and opportunities for partnering with them or at least a development of our upcoming energy strategy. I was just on the Public Works website, there's a plethora of energy strategies, energy discussion papers, energy information papers. It seems like maybe this time we should be doing something different. If Northland is -- if their claims are true and this government won't return their phone calls or return an email, how are we going to engage them in this energy strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is going to the Minister of Public Works. Thank you.

Minister of Public Works and Services.

I believe there's two questions; I'll answer both of them. First of all, the returning of phone calls to NUL. The first phone call I believe to the Premier was based on the Hay River franchise, and that's in arbitration right now, and I wouldn't be doing anyone any good to engage in a conversation when that process is going on. My other recollection is that ATCO phoned the Premier about getting out of their franchise agreement for ATCO gas in Inuvik. So that's the two phone calls; first part of his question.

The second part, NUL is free to any time submit material to the Government of the Northwest Territories towards a hydro strategy in the NWT. The department is going to be introducing and developing an energy strategy, a long-term vision for the NWT, and NUL has been invited to participate in the Yellowknife closed meeting on that for stakeholders. But, as well, we're also planning on an electricity stakeholder workshop for regulators and utilities, and ATCO and NUL will also be invited to participate in that sector in specific conversations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Nine months ago there was no arbitration going on in Hay River and that's the first phone call that the Minister is referring to. Doesn't the Minister see the value in having a corporation that's been here for over 60 years supplying power to the two largest communities in the territory; isn’t there value in maybe a greater engagement? Maybe reaching out a little more, being a little more proactive. I'm not saying giving them favour but recognizing the fact that they have a lot more skin in the game; they have a lot more knowledge than pretty much every other stakeholder in the territory.

I just had to clarify in my head what your whole question was. ATCO is a big outfit and they do have a lot of money, but the problem moving forward for this government is that -- it's not the money it's our borrowing capacity moving forward. We need to have engagement with the federal government. If we decide to expand the Talston Project, we need to have a buyer at the end of the day. This government is engaged in consultation or conversations with other end users who will purchase this power and to do that at the end of the day we believe that the Talston project is going to require a subsidy and that's why we need to have federal engagement moving forward. ATCO has capital but that doesn't fix our borrowing limit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

ATCO has capital and they're also used to doing things economically. They've done very well for themselves by completing projects; they're very cost-effective. The Minister stated that we need a buyer for for Talston. I can understand that if you're talking about sending power down to somewhere like Saskatchewan, but we're talking about building a road to the Slave Geological Province. I don't know, who's the buyer up there that we're building this road for? We're building it in the hopes, you know, if you build it they will come. We know there's minerals up there. We know that if we build it people will probably come to explore up there. The same thing with hydro, that's a place where we can expand hydro to or we can look into. I'm going to find a question here. I don't want to just make a statement, but -- I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker, I think I just went on a little rant. He answered all my questions, so thank you to the Minister.

---Laughter

Masi. I'll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Masi. Minister of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked me a couple of times previously to do a constituency tour and in all fairness to him I was booked up solid. As long as I have enough lead time I have no problem doing a tour in his region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer, and I understand he has a busy schedule so I appreciate that. Will he be able to make a commitment to potentially do this tour, work permitted, do it in January?

Yes, I will have a look at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a little follow-up to my questions I asked earlier. You know, as I mentioned the Louis Cardinal, it's pretty clear that the vessel has had its time in the waters; it's time to replace this unit, you know, before we have any incidents. We always have to try to avoid these. Always prepare and make sure we have the proper infrastructure. Will the Minister at least commit to doing a planning study to be prepared in case we do have to replace the unit? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Transportation.