Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The realignment of the Tlicho winter road was Premier-directed, not a Cabinet initiative or brought forward by the Members-at-large as Caucus. It has been my understanding that there has been some type of formal instructions with Fortune Minerals about creating a year-round road out all the way to the community of Whati and even to Gameti.
I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, if this is the case, what is actually happening out there that Regular Members have not been informed of. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue discussions with the Tlicho Government on the winter road realignment and trying to identify monies going forward to allow us to carry out that work. As far as the road the Member talks about to Fortune Minerals, nothing has been decided in that case. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as many of us know, this is approximately a 120-kilometre road which could run anywhere about a $2 million project. In speaking to some people who work for Fortune, they’ve coined it as a deal has been struck to work on a framework to do this road and that they’re planning for investment.
I’m trying to find out what has been struck in the form of a deal with Fortune Minerals in order to either build a road, lease back a road, or create a road. What is happening on this issue? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in my role as Minister of ITI I do meet frequently with industry representatives. I have met with Fortune Minerals a number of times in the past. Certainly, a road to the project is really fundamental to the project going ahead.
We haven’t signed any agreements. We haven’t entered into any negotiations on a road. None of this has happened. It’s all, I guess, just guesswork on the Member’s part. When that does happen, you can rest assured Members of this House, the Member and his committee will know about it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister can say it’s guesswork on my part, but it was a Fortune Minerals person who told me they were in discussion with the Department of Transportation on this. So if he would like to change departments on the discussion, that’s up to the Minister. In this case, it happens to be the same person which obviously can mean it is.
Maybe for the record officially in this House, what work is being done on that road to the communities of Whati and Gameti and, specifically, how much has been the investment on that work to those communities, because I’m not aware of anything specifically asked for in any budget. I just want to make sure that’s clear in the House today.
Thank you very much. I’ll get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue I’m raising here is not that I’m not in favour of the road. The fact is, is it seems like we’re in the dark. So I guess my next question is the issue of what threshold of work agreement, compliance or negotiation is needed in order to bring Members into the fold of the discussion. It seems as if there’s some type of discussion and work going on behind the scenes, but Members, in the context of transparency, are in a position where we don’t know anything, but yet industry is coming to tell us work is being done. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member would know the Government of the Northwest Territories is not in a financial position to spend $150 million on a road to Fortune Minerals. That’s not something that we have the financial wherewithal to accomplish. I’m not sure who the Member is speaking to at Fortune, but I will talk to the folks at Fortune Minerals, and the next time they are in Yellowknife, I will set up a meeting through the Member and have Fortune Minerals sit down with the Member and his committee, and I’d certainly make myself available to attend the same meeting so that we’re all on the same page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
