Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my constituents have been reporting hazardous conditions along the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway since it has opened. Mr. Speaker, the highway is not well-marked, and there are no turn-outs to get off the road. The lack of signage is a major hazard and should be completed or improved.

Even though residents of Tuktoyaktuk and the region have become familiar with the road, there are still many incidents, usually involving poor weather conditions. I have heard that vehicles are stranded in snow in the middle of the road. If the highway cannot be cleared on a routine basis, there should be travel warnings issued notifying the public.

A recent significant accident on the highway to Tuktoyaktuk involved the community's mayor, who was a builder of the highway and very familiar with road conditions. Mr. Gruben narrowly missed being hit himself when his vehicle was struck by an oncoming truck. Visibility was obviously poor, and the highway conditions should have triggered a travel warning.

Mr. Speaker, the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway crosses a very windy region where strong gusts and blowing snow can cause poor driving conditions. When there is snow on the road, vehicles behind a transport truck can find themselves in whiteout conditions. The highway is not wide like an ice road, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, travellers should be aware that the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway passes an extraordinary landscape. There are few trees in some areas, and temperatures can be extremely cold in the winter. There are no shelter points between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. There is no communication. It is not the place to be stuck or broken down for very long; without help, freezing is a very real danger. There are no established first responders or communication along the highway, so people must travel prepared. Mostly, residents and travellers need to be reminded that it is not completed.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned particularly for the inexperienced northern drivers and tourists. Mr. Speaker, I strongly advise travellers to check the road condition updates on the Department of Infrastructure's website. In addition to highway improvements, Mr. Speaker, I believe we have some work to do to safely promote our most northern highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to visitors in the gallery. We have with us a very good family friend, Marnie Villeneuve, also known to be the education leader of the North. With her is also Michelle Brown, both from Fort Smith and long-time dedicated teachers in the North. I would like to say welcome to our Assembly.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a great honour to recognize our president of the NWT Teachers' Association, Mr. Fraser Oliver. He did a great job this week with the Educators' Conference. It was well-attended with teachers from across the Northwest Territories, and I welcome all educators here in the gallery today. Thank you.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to recognize Marnie Villeneuve and Michelle Brown, residents of Thebacha.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier today in my Member's statement with regard to the satellite industry up in Inuvik and the benefits that it has had for the people of Inuvik and the Northwest Territories. I spoke about the infrastructure investment we've made in the fibre optic line.

We know that there has been some outside investment with regard to putting new antennas in Inuvik, but the application process seems to be arduous and long. I'd like to ask the Premier about the antenna application issue. It's been going on for a couple of years. I'd just like to know: has our government been aware of these delays, and if so, what are we doing to let the federal government know how these delays can be severely impacting our economy in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to reinforce the tremendous opportunity that this satellite facility has, not only for Inuvik, but for the whole Northwest Territories. Inuvik is the best location for tracking satellites, and when we went on a satellite tour in Europe, we become readily aware why because, when we visited the launching facilities in Korona, we were told that to have success in launching a satellite, the longer you can talk to it, the more chance of success. In Korona, they can talk to satellite for nine minutes an hour, but if they twin to Inuvik, they can talk for 30 minutes an hour, so the chances of a successful launch is significantly improved. I just read recently that, in the next few years, there will be over 4,000 launches of satellites, so it's certainly an important area with tremendous opportunity.

We are very concerned about the delay. Certainly, we, myself, and officials, and a number of Ministers have interacted with the federal government Ministers, right up to the Prime Minister's office. I would like to take credit and say that we understand a decision will be made this week on the licence, but there have been other players, and the Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories has spent a lot of effort on it, and the Senator chairing the Arctic Consult Senate Committee. My officials have a call with Global Affairs Canada tomorrow to obtain more information on the licences and how it applies or the impact for our planet Inuvik satellite. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Premier for his comments. It's appreciated. I know that he recognizes the importance of the opportunities this industry can provide to the Northwest Territories. It seems as though to some degree there might be some approvals imminent, and that's positive as well.

As I alluded to in my statement, Mr. Speaker, there are folks who are starting to suggest that Canada is not a friendly jurisdiction for this industry, and although there are many maybe approvals here on the horizon, these were long-standing applications. What has the federal government indicated to our government as the reasons for these delays?

This is an area where the advances are very rapid, so it's a concern when it takes two years for a licence to be approved. However, the federal government recognizes that the legislation is old and processes that are currently in place need to be updated, given the significant advances. Part of the delay was they have a federal government site that was developed and there was also a site that was developed by the private sector. This was the first international application that was received. They had to make sure about national security issues, and also perhaps the fact that the construction of a facility was done before the application process was approved may have had an impact on it as well.

Thank you to the Premier for his reply, and I hope that certainly we can continue to voice our concerns to the federal government that there needs to be some streamlining with regards to these application processes, and that there needs to be improvements made to the legislation.

With regard to approvals of these applications, what do we know? Do we know, is it now going to be just a straightforward kind of approval, or are there a number of conditions that are attached to these approvals? Do we know anything along those lines?

Our expectation is that we'll get more details when our officials talk to the Global Affairs Canada later this week, which will allow us to try to make things better going forward.

Also, we're hoping that Planet Lab with this pending approval will see fit to revisit their decision to pull out and take their antennas out.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: certainly, we can't expect to promote the Northwest Territories as a place to build antennas if applications take two years to approve. Other jurisdictions clearly can streamline this process. What can our government do to put pressure on the federal government so that we can start to fast-track some of these applications? Certainly we don't want to have folks who have already made investments starting to dismantle their antennas and relocating them into other jurisdictions. What are we going to do to put pressure on the federal government to start fast-tracking these applications? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think the fact is that the federal government is well aware of the potential for satellites in the Northwest Territories. Certainly, Natural Resources Canada was aware of it. They invested a significant amount in developing the federal site. The other federal Ministers, including the Prime Minister's Office, is well aware of it now, and certainly we will continue to work with the federal government to find ways to resolve the issues so we can continue to grow the industry in the Northwest Territories. We can work with them to identify to them where we see the bottleneck so that certainly updating the current legislation would be a good start. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, our highway meets the national guidelines with respect to engineering, signage, and design posting limits along that highway. We've all had an opportunity and Cabinet has had a chance to drive it.

The further work that we're going to commit on signage going forward is there is going to be some information signage installed and some more delineators to add to driver comfort along the highway. We realize that this piece of highway is in one of the harshest conditions in Canada, or anywhere in the world, and people must have to drive accordingly through it. As the Member referred to the accident in his Member's statement, the RCMP are investigating that. They will determine what the causes were of that accident, and we'll have a look at it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the response from the Minister. It's good to see that work is going on to improve the highway. Mr. Speaker, my second question is: under what circumstances does the department issue public alerts on road conditions for the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway?

We have our web page where we continually update the highway conditions of the highways in the Northwest Territories. The department also uses Twitter on a lot of occasions, because I always re-tweet out what the department is putting out there, from waits on winter roads to closures of the Dempster and such.

On the Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik Highway, I think a lot of people maybe even don't even realize they're driving by, because as the Member said, people don't pay attention to signage sometimes. At the beginning and at the end of both sections of the highway, there's a sign up there to say if the roads are open or closed.

It is good to see travellers using the website. I have noticed Facebook is probably the number one user-interface for road conditions. Mr. Speaker, I am talking about winter conditions, and my question is: what will the department do to improve the information it provides to road travellers about winter safety?