Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is something that is possible once we get the airport up to where we think it should be. Maybe this is a fee that in a future government could be either lowered or discontinued. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Debates of March 8th, 2017
This is page numbers 2249 - 2288 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 airport.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The revolving fund itself, how is that going to be reported on annually by the department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving forward, the revolving fund will have a page in the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful to know. Presumably, then, it will also be in the business plans, but I guess I am thinking about how would the department show what the money was spent on in terms of capital improvements, and will there be any tracking of statistics to show how the money is improving services at the airport, things like wait time, line-up lengths, and delivery of baggage, those sorts of things? Is there going to be any attempt to track any of that and show how improvements have improved the performance of the airport, itself? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we move forward with this model, we do recognize the need for transparency and to have a good accounting for the public about how the revenues are being earned and how the expenditures are being tracked and how they are going to be spent, so, as the Minister indicated, there will be a page in the main estimates that provides information at a high level on the revolving fund. In addition to that, we would prepare an annual business plan that would outline the work that we want to undertake with the monies that are available to the airport. We would also prepare financial reports that would show how that money is spent at the end of the year.
In fact, air carriers are talking to us that they would like improved metrics, improved statistics for what is happening at the airport so that they can make their business decisions, so we would be, as part of the business plan, also providing all kinds of information around use, metrics around the Yellowknife Airport. That will be adjusted based on what the air carriers' information is that they would want to see. I would note, as well, that the airport economic advisory committee will have oversight over this, but we will also be setting up an air carrier consultative committee that would be providing input into the capital and how those fees are expended, and then also an airline operating committee, which would provide input to the operations of the airport for how the airport is operated and any improvement that we might want to make there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I'd like to suggest that it's not just air carriers that would be interested in that sort of metric information. It's probably actually the public and air travellers. So are those sorts of things going to be considered? The reason why I ask this is the economic advisory committee is just going to be a bunch of business folks, which is fine, but there is not necessarily any public representation on there. Air carriers may not even be represented. It's just going to be businesspeople. Is there going to be some effort to develop indicators of performance at the airport that might be of more interest to the travelling public? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We certainly do think that the people on the Airport Economic Advisory Committee are going to be representing the interests of the public. The information that we provide, the business plan, it's available on our website now, so all of that information is public, and anybody in the public will be able to take a look at it. Some of the things that the public would be interested in are just the wait times, baggage delivery times, and de-icing times with aircraft. Those kinds of things are the type of metrics the air carriers want. We think the public is going to be interested in those, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response, but I guess I think the real way to find out what the public would like to know is actually get some public representation on the economic advisory committee itself. Let's turn to the committee. The Minister did provide us a terms of reference. Is that a public document at this point? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will pass that on to Deputy Minister Neudorf. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have not released the document publicly yet. We are waiting to get through this process. Assuming the bill is approved, then we will have that information released publicly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to go to the committee terms of reference, which are apparently still secret. Why is there no public representation from a variety of stakeholders for the Economic Advisory Committee? It says that it's -- well, I am not allowed to talk about it, I guess, but it seems to be business leaders. We do not know what kind of business they may be involved with, but why was this not crafted with a view to getting representation from key stakeholders like the travel industry, the travelling public, air carriers, the Northern Air Transportation Association, and so on, the City of Yellowknife, which has a big stake and interest in this, Aboriginal governments, local Aboriginal governments? Why was it not crafted more as a stakeholder-based committee rather than just businesspeople? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Neudorf
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We fully intend to release the terms of reference for that committee publicly, so there is no issue with talking about it here, now. It was just because we were waiting for the bill to pass before we had released it. All of those groups that the Member had talked about, I think that they are all going to be represented in various measures on the committee.
We want to have people that have a strategic focus, a good business focus, and can provide strategic business-related advice to the airport to help us make good choices, good business-related choices to help grow the economy of the NWT. In order to do that, we will need representation from all those groups that the Member represented, and, in fact, there are individuals from Aboriginal governments, from the City of Yellowknife, from the business community, from tourism, that have all expressed interest in that committee. So I think we are optimistic that we are going to have some really good representation with some good advice from committee members as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess this question is for the Minister, if I could get him to respond. Is the Minister prepared to change these terms of reference, to turn this into a representative body with representation from the kind of stakeholders that I just talked about, and actually have the Minister, him or herself, actually make the appointments rather than the deputy minister? Thank you, Mr. Chair.