Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to ask a follow-up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Transportation some questions with regard to carry-overs in my riding. Last year we had a huge opportunity to provide some chipsealing towards Fort Simpson, reconstruct Highway No. 7 from the B.C. border to Fort Liard, and complete the Nahanni Butte access road. Unfortunately, we were unable to do it. I’d like to ask the Minister what the plans are to complete these projects this coming fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has listed a number of projects in his riding that have been deferred or carried over. Our intention is to get them all done for this year, on top of the projects that are listed; providing that the budget is approved, of course. We’ve had a lot of work going on in the area of Nahendeh, I think to the tune of almost $30 million worth of projects. We had a few projects that weren’t able to move forward as a result of weather and other issues, but we fully intend to have those done this coming year.
I guess the most important question for the constituents is: will we be involved in another lengthy tendering process and awarding the contract where it will take us into late summer or fall to complete these projects, or can we get out of the gate early and complete these projects in the springtime?
There were only a couple of projects and some of them had a fairly large budget that we weren’t able to bring forward. Those have, for the most part, awarded, and we expect those will come out fairly quickly in the spring. Conditions, of course, with the weather and ground conditions will be a factor, but we expect those to move forward. There are still some that need to be tendered, but we’ll have those out fairly quick also.
With the couple of contracts that the Minister did speak about, do we have to wait until the new fiscal year, April 1st, to get those tendered out, or is the work and process underway to get those contracts into the system and into the public’s hands?
Some of those were already tendered out and have been awarded, and we’re not able to move forward as a result of weather conditions and some other issues that have not allowed these projects to progress. I would expect that we’d be looking at coming out really quickly, as this money is being carried over.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess one of the largest incomplete projects was the Highway No. 7 from the B.C. border to Fort Liard. What efforts and plans and how many kilometres will be completed this coming construction season?
The Member is asking me to talk about some very specific details. I don’t have it in my memory bank to tell him how many kilometres are going to be done. I could tell him there was $5.4 million dollars planned for Highway No. 7 that needs to be concluded. We’re also planning to do a number of kilometres along Highway No. 1 to get chipsealed. That’s the information I can share, is the dollar amount. I don’t have the actual kilometres and locations.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
