Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Transportation. I’m going to be going up north now with my questions. This House approved a $2.5 million due diligence for the Inuvik-Tuk road a number of months back. We heard inside the House in Committee of the Whole that findings of this so-called first round of due diligence produced 300-and-some holes, to which, as we heard from the deputy minister, were somewhat questionable. Can the Minister indicate to us here when we’d be expected to see the tabled findings of the so-called first $2.5 million so that the taxpayers know what value they got for that money? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once we complete the environmental assessment, it goes through the review process. I’d be more than happy to share that level of detail with all Members of this House. Thank you.
I think the general public is a bit concerned here that this government, this department received one round of $2.5 million, just received a round of another $2.5 million, and we’re going to be breaking for the summer months, we’re not going to be back here in the House until October. Again, the question to ask: When can we see an expectation of information being shared to the public regarding the first round of due diligence studies of the so-called bore holes and how much aggregate or sand is out there? My second question: When can we see this new round of information be available to the public? Thank you.
That would undoubtedly happen this coming fall. It’s important that this work gets done. I can’t underline that enough. We need to know what we’re getting ourselves into. We fully intend to try to identify where the granular material is. This is our effort to do that, to go through the environmental assessment process so that when decisions are made by this government, we will know what we are getting ourselves into. Thank you.
Again, I do appreciate it is a very complex project and we’ve got to do our work to make sure we’ve got all the answers. The point is that we have done quite a bit of work thus far on this project and we get to that point where it’s called a tipping point. We’re pot-committed, so to speak, in poker terms. I want to make sure that before we get to that next round of ask from this government, can the Minister make guarantees to this House that we’ll get answers to these first rounds of so-called information before there’s a future ask of money from this government? Thank you.
We had hoped to get before committee and give a presentation on the status of the Inuvik-Tuk highway. We have provided a written update to the committee, and we were happy to do that. This fall when we have more information, again, we’ll be very happy to work with Members on that side of the House to show them what we’ve done that will identify where the granular material is and next steps forward. We’re going to need the support of Members to ensure that this project moves forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the complexity of the project. However, will the Minister commit to publishing publicly all findings in the next round when we meet back in October? At the next time of session, would he commit to publishing all findings so that the public can see clearly what Members are seeing so they are, in fact, informed as we head down the rabbit hole on this very expensive project? Thank you.
When that material becomes available, we will ensure that Members are brought up to speed on that material. Again, our best guess would be it would happen sometime this fall. I know we’re back in the House in October. Hopefully, during the October sitting we can have that time to sit down with committee and go over the findings that we have arrived at. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
