Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister does specialize in signs and, you know, we could have put signs up in this area. Also, put a berm on half of the road. That could have helped in this area here. So what lessons could be learned from this year's closure of the Aklavik ice road that could be applied in the future especially as winter conditions become more variable? Thank you, Ms. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are always lessons learned in every season. This one in particular, I guess I would say that the lesson learned from this is we're going to have very close ties with the community on a day-to-day basis as spring comes to the region, being that it's the only ice road left up there; we're not going to Inuvik anymore. We'll have better communications around how we're planning on closing of the ice road.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, in light of the federal government's announcement in terms of funding Aboriginal languages for the Northwest Territories. First, of course, we have the federal government making the announcement of four-year funding. The GNWT is involved with Aboriginal governments, as well, so I wanted to ask the Minister: how could these three partnership arrangements ensure that there is a strong community involvement with the preservation, enhancement, and revitalization of ongoing efforts to ensure that our languages flourish and are used every day? Mahsi.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just recently tabled the official Aboriginal Languages Strategic Framework that we are going to be working with and building on, but we also have really great partnerships with all of our Aboriginal governments. Since 2014, we have given them funding so that they can develop programs, regional Aboriginal languages plans, and we support them with this additional funding that we did get through the agreement signed with the federal government.

We are getting increased contributions to these Aboriginal governments, as well as creating a territorial linguist position that is going to help with professional development, and help these Aboriginal governments move forward to address and get their Aboriginal languages plans into place and have action on them. There are many other things that we are doing with the communities. In terms of working, I can sit down with the Member and let him know what some of these things are. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the residential school experience, there was no place for Aboriginal languages or culture. Some might say that the pride and personal responsibility that a person takes to take ownership of our Aboriginal languages is not there. How does the GNWT envision that healing and wellness can play a part in preserving and enhancing our Aboriginal languages?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has made this call to action for all provinces and territories. We are stepping up to the plate. We are working with our Aboriginal governments to ensure the future of Aboriginal languages. Preservation of culture and traditions is a priority, and we are going to work to increase our efforts, as well as working with the federal and Aboriginal governments to ensure this is done. At the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we have made it mandatory. With Northern Studies 10, we are implementing the residential school curriculum, and in the future, with Northern Studies 20 and 30, working on implementing our land claims and self-governments, as well. We are doing a lot of things with this increased funding. We are going to be able to increase the resources to adjust some of these calls to action.

I would like to at least acknowledge the efforts of the department in terms of ensuring that we take steps to ensure that, indeed, our languages are preserved and enhanced. There is a lot of good work that is going on, and I think that has to reach the ground level, at the community level.

My other question is, this is a four-year funding announcement. I think last year, it was part of a transfer of dollars, so one year of a full four-year program has passed. I wanted to ask the Minister: at the end of this funding period that has been committed $19.6 million, at the end of the process which could probably take us to the year 2020, what does he think would, by that time, all the partnership achieved in terms of preserving, enhancing, and ensuring our languages are in a state of flourishing, at the same time, successful, and our use in everyday society, of Aboriginal communities throughout the North?

Obviously, there are a lot of indicators that we can identify. We want to see the outcomes of these investments that we are doing in the Northwest Territories. Our end goal is to have revitalization, preservation of our languages, our culture, and increase the amount of our NWT residents speaking their Aboriginal languages.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister had stated very clearly that there will be a position of a linguist established, and that is very good. One thing that I have observed over the years is we have made a lot of great effort in terms of preserving the stories of elders. A lot of them more likely are archived with the various Aboriginal groups and communities. Would part of the strategy consider establishing, perhaps, a central bank? A lot of those interviews of elders who have passed could be safely kept. At the same time, maybe they are in analog form. They could be digitized for future reference, at least to preserve those historical stories as we might describe them.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that some of our Aboriginal governments are already in that process of digitizing the stories that have been told over the years. That is something that we want to continue to support, and I think the Member has a really good idea in bringing this forward so that we can preserve our culture, languages, and the stories of our elders and our ancestors. I want to thank the Member for bringing that up.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member alluded to in his statement there, we have Drive Alive, but Infrastructure has an improvement safety plan that we work on continually for all highways. We also follow the TAC program for our guidelines for all highways in the Northwest Territories, along with all our other public outreach that we have between Twitter and Facebook and those sorts of things. We are always promoting safety. We have our speed signs that we put out and, as we all know, there is a number of bump signs between here and Behchoko. Our staff is working regularly and daily to at least communicate to the public the areas that are of concern out in the highway system throughout the Northwest Territories, on a daily basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister for his reply. Earlier, I spoke in my Member's statement about the need to potentially redesign some corners and add some guardrails. On the May long weekend, sadly, there was an accident on a corner that I myself, in fact, had an accident on, that very same corner, a number of years ago. It does not have guardrails. I am wondering if the Minister and his department could give any consideration to improving Highway No. 4, the Ingraham Trail, with some consideration to redesign certain corners and install guardrails?

Infrastructure is investing roughly $8 million from 2015 to 2019 on the Ingraham Trail. A lot of work has already been done in the years leading up to now, which was chip sealing, embankment work, installing culverts, and such. There is a multi-year contract on road widening and structural engineering and drainage improvements, as well as surfacing, an ongoing challenge on that road. As far as guardrails and such go, there is some guardrail installation that is actually going to take place in the 2017-2019 calendar years. Which sections those exactly are, I couldn't give the Member that exact location at this point. The other point I want to make today is any time there is an accident on the highway, we have all our engineers go there and review the critical incident that happened and see if there are improvements that could be made to that section of road moving forward.

As I have said in this House a number of times, climate change has proposed significant challenges for the department as the roads are continually changing. They are continually sinking and changing and cracking from climate change, and those challenges will continue. They will continue going forward on Ingraham Trail specifically, just due to the amount of traffic that is out there in the summertime and the amount of winter traffic that we have serving the mines. So we will continue to review everything going forward and pay close attention to this section of the highway.

Thank you to the Minister for the commitment, I suppose, from the department to go and review this particular corner. It is good to know that, after accidents such as this, they do take the time to go and reassess the potential need for improvement.

Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to work with regard to highway patrols itself? We have highway patrol within the territorial government, but not just our own highway patrol. Are we working with the City of Yellowknife's Municipal Enforcement Division? Are we working with the RCMP to take best advantage of patrolling our highways? Are we working on collaborative programs such as check stops, et cetera, to reduce unsafe driving?

As the Member said, we have our own highway patrol that goes out there continually, specifically in the wintertime when truck traffic is at its peak. We have our superintendent who patrols each highway section that they are in charge of on a daily basis to make people aware of potential hazardous areas and the condition of the highway and report back to the department on that. As far as us working with the City of Yellowknife and the RCMP on the sorts of things that the Member has alluded to, I am not quite sure how that works. I would have to check with the department if we have collaboration with the city and their municipal enforcement and the RCMP on a regular basis on some of the challenges around that.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for his reply. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to know if the Minister can inform this House at this time with regard to any update on the investigation or assessment that was going to take place around the winter ice road season out on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto highway that was stemming from all of the accidents, the rollovers, the cab fires that had happened? Can the Minister inform us if there is anything he can share with this House right now to let us know what has come of those circumstances? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.