Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, this isn't an error; this is a situation that happened because of unfortunate ice that came down. I have been on TV. I have been interviewed a number of times around this issue. I have reassured the public through the media that the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to arranging and covering the costs of the air-lifted goods to the communities.

In particular, we want to get in the fuel. We have an RFP that is closing today on air-lift of fuel into the communities; that's our number one priority, even though there's no immediate danger of a fuel shortage within the communities. Once that is completed, we are also at the same time looking at all the commodities on a commodity-by-commodity basis and a community-by-community basis, but the community of Paulatuk will be the first to be addressed through that, and we were going to be looking at it on a customer-by-customer basis. As of today, our staff and our ADM has flown in to meet with the community of Paulatuk. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't think there was any ice on August 12^th for the first delivery, but I appreciate the department's effort to go and explain to the community what's going on. I think that's very essential and important for something like this.

Mr. Speaker, the cancellation happened last week. We'd like to think that the department would move faster on an issue like this for larger centres. This means the department will consider some store items as non-essential that are delivered to Paulatuk, Mr. Speaker, on this air lift. Store shelves and business shelves may likely remain empty throughout the year. Mr. Speaker, why is the request for proposals for shipping goods only closing today?

As I've said, the RFP is closing today for the air-lift. One of the things that we wanted to make sure is we wanted to make sure the airline companies had enough time to make sure this was a feasible, fair process for them to bid on it. We don't want it to be a rush thing and cause us more problems down the road. So that RFP is closing today. I suspect the fuel delivery will start and commence as early as next week.

You know, there are a number of things that have to be put into place when we do this, around the logistics things. We have to transfer freight off the barges to our storage facility in Inuvik, we have to re-pack containers so they're suitable for air transportation, we have to organize loading and unloading of aircraft in the communities, we have to prepare staging areas. So there are a number of things that we have to do for this air resupply program, and hopefully it's going to commence, as I've said, as early as next week.

I appreciate the response from the Minister that they're starting to move on this issue. Mr. Speaker, the Minister is also a businessman. I would like him to put himself in the place of businesses that will lose out on a whole year in a place where there are no roads, paying off goods that they cannot receive. Mr. Speaker, can the customers who lost out on the business and harvesting opportunities from this cancellation get compensated by the Government of the Northwest Territories?

Yes, in my previous life, I was a businessman, and if I lived in the High Arctic I'd realize there are some substantial risks to getting my freight in, just because of the conditions that these people live in and the challenges of getting up there. Cargo is offered and shipped with no guarantee of delivery; people know that when they sign their bill of lading. The turbulent conditions clearly lay that out. There is also insurance payable to third-party customers to ensure they carry insurance on their cargo in case it is damaged, but we went out of our way as a government, and that's one of the reasons we purchased this MTS, to bring stability to this, because I've said publicly and I'll say it in this House: if this was a private company that owned this, they would phone you and say, "Do you have cargo on your freight?" Yes? Let's deal with that. If you don't, "Where do you want your stuff parked until next year?"

We're trying to make the best we can of this situation and look after the residents.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

The short answer is, no, we're not going to be looking at Tuktoyaktuk in the short term because Hay River is the most intermodal northern connection to the whole continental supply chain; that's where the majority of the fuel comes; that's the majority of our freight; and at this point in time right now, we're still going to use Hay River. Tuktoyaktuk could be an advantage at some point. I've said that we would continue to review our ongoing operations as we go forward. I'm not just blaming the ice for this whole thing. There could be some lessons learned from the department and scheduling of barges and such going forward.

The other point I want to make quite clear is that a lot of people have phoned me thinking we have one barge servicing these communities. We have five barges, tugs, going simultaneously supplying all these communities up and down the river system and on the Arctic coast. We had a challenging ice season and some Members think it's maybe kind of funny that we should run it as a business. It didn't work out so well when the business ran it; they went bankrupt. That's why the government of the Northwest Territories stepped in to protect the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.