Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my understanding it was just recently renewed but I want to get clarification in terms of, you know, as MTS is going through a governance review model and just to see how that affects some of our contracts. So if I can have Mr. Brennan speak to where we're at in terms of the contract details. Thank you.

Mr. Brennan.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to change up here a bit, and I want to talk about the -- or the ferries. And I'd like to talk I guess about specifically the Abraham Francis. My understanding is that vessel is only rated at 40,000 kg so this limits the number of loads -- the weight and loads coming across whereas you got the Louis Cardinal, which is closer to Inuvik, and it's rated for 64,000 kg.

So my understanding is that -- is it possible -- my understanding it is possible to lengthen the Abraham Francis which would then allow you to increase that to 64 which will make it a lot better to -- a lot easier to move cargo across. And so I'm just wondering if any work or any assessment is being done to make that happen? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to ask Mr. Brennan to speak a little bit more about some of the technical questions in that question because I don't fully understand what it means from going from 45 to 67. So I'm going to see if Mr. Brennan can help me out here. Thanks.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you. I don't understand what the question -- I'm going to ask Gary to speak to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Brennan.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, the other thing about the ferries too is, like, they are all aged and, you know, and to keep them up to I suspect Transport Canada regulations is probably fairly cumbersome and I suspect costly, especially if you're using, you know, southern firms to do the work.

So, you know, is there any plans in the future, I guess, to either build a new ferry or do any really major retrofits? My understanding is that maybe we continue to do retrofits as I -- when I go through the budget I see that. So I'm just wondering, you know, kind of where we're at with that as they kind of age out? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We continue to do retrofits. We do that now with some of our ferries. And I do agree with the Member that we do have aging infrastructure and, you know, we continue to work with the feds to be able to look at replacing these, perhaps from single hull to double hull which may perhaps be a requirement going forward in the future. But at this point, that's not the intent other than to just continue with the retrofits. It is quite costly and, you know, we all know that we're working within a deficit right now. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just have a small comment or question to ask around -- I'm really glad to see that there's been the increase in positions for the occupational health and safety section here, and I know that that's the result of one new position in a region, which I think is great, and I guess I'd just like to urge the Minister or see if there are plans for one of these positions in each of the five regions. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it was hard enough to get just one, let alone five in each of the regions. But I mean, we recognize that this is safety. They are responsible for the department's occupational health safety, which includes all the national standards for various occupations that is throughout the departments. So at this time, we're just, you know, recognizing that we need to expand and I'm just happy that we were able to get one. Thank you, Madam Chair.