Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Hawkins on Wednesday, March 6, 2013, regarding the Tlicho winter road to the Fortune Minerals site.
The Department of Transportation is working with the Tlicho Government to develop a project description report for the realignment of the public winter road to an overland winter route between Behchoko, Whati and Gameti An MOU between DOT and the Tlicho Government, signed in fall 2011, re-established a steering committee to guide the development of a project description report (PDR) for the winter road realignment. PDR work includes terrain, flora and fauna, archaeological and socio-economic baseline data collection, consultation and the development of environmental mitigation options.
The working group, comprised of officials from DOT and the Tlicho Government, have met regularly since December 2011. The working group expects to complete the PDR in fall of 2013. Traditional knowledge, socio-economic and consultation aspects of the PDR will be managed by the Tlicho while environmental baseline and engineering aspects will be managed by DOT. Field engineering, environment and traditional knowledge data collection is underway. Significant progress has been made in the development of the PDR specifically with respect to a new alignment, borrow sites, and in establishing a timeline for future work.
The department is currently only studying the realignment of the winter road, not an all-weather road as would be required by Fortune Minerals for its NICO Project.
The department has a capital budget in place to complete the project description report and associated planning studies to move the project toward environmental approval.
The department does not have any capital funding to proceed with the realignment work. It is expected that construction of a realignment winter road from Behchoko, Whati and Gameti would cost approximately $30 million.
