Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation in regards to the area of chipseal or basically some sort of program that can be used to upgrade or resurface the Dempster Highway. At some point we are going to have to resurface that highway. We are already looking at the widening, which hopefully in the next couple of years will be concluded, but we will have to find a product to surface the Dempster in the future.
I would like to ask the Minister in regards to the possibility of a pilot project. I know I have asked this to three previous Ministers of Transportation. They thought it was a great idea then, but still it hasn’t seen the light of day. I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, would he seriously consider looking at the possibility of a joint effort between the Hamlet of Fort McPherson and the Department of Transportation to look at some sort of a resurfacing of the Dempster. Also, I believe the Hamlet of Fort McPherson is also considering investing some of their dollars to do some upgrades in the community. I think it is important that we work in conjunction with each other. I would like to ask the Minister, has his department had an opportunity to consider this idea and whereabouts is it.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it is a great idea.
---Laughter
Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised the issue of the Dempster for quite a few years now. We have been working hard to address some of the issues in terms of reconstruction that was required for that portion of the road in the North. It is something that has been quite challenging as finances have been difficult to acquire over the last while. We have managed to set a budget of I think about $8 million now annually to move a little quicker and getting more on that road. That has been our focus to respond to some of the concerns out there, try to get the road widened, to try to get the section straightened and put a lift on other areas that would help this road become more and better improved.
We also had committed to the Member that we would look at seeing how we could incorporate at least a test of doing some kind of dust suppression on it. I think, up to now, we have only been covering about 100 kilometres of this road with dust suppressant, calcium. We started looking at it. We have not talked with the municipality. We were not aware that we were at a stage where they are considering doing some chipseal, but we will commit to doing that. We have done some work on our own and the economics of it, but we certainly can commit to talking to the community. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to sit down with the hamlet and also Fort McPherson is one of the communities that did receive main street chipseal funding in which they chipsealed the main street. Again, at some point they are going to have to upgrade it, extend it or find a way of maintaining that strip of chipseal. I think it is important that they do consider their options. One of their options is to look at the possibility of working on other streets in the community and also maintain what they already have, so build off of that.
I would just like to ask the Minister exactly how soon is it possible for himself or his department to sit down with myself and the community of Fort McPherson to the hamlet council and see if there is a possibility of a project that we can work on jointly coming forward and hopefully it could be brought by way of maybe by this summer starting the feasibility and the planning and see exactly where we can go from there. I would just like to ask that from the Minister.
Mr. Speaker, sitting down with the municipality we can do right away including the MLA. We will have to work around our schedules. We have done some financial analysis and looked at different options that we have in front of us. I think we can probably rule out the concept of pavement overlay. That is expensive even on the southern parts, even in Alberta. It is a very expensive undertaking. Chipseal we know is something that is relatively cheap compared to pavement. There are other products that are in between, in terms of cost. We have to take a look at that.
Of course, the Member’s riding is clearly quite far on the northern end of the Territory. We need to take that into consideration. Our work in terms of financial analysis is not complete yet. Having heard that the Member’s community is anticipating to do some work either this summer or next summer, I think it would certainly help us in terms of economies of scale.
We will commit to sitting down with them right away. Of course, the final issue would be to see how we would pay for it. We haven’t factored in a budget because we don’t know what it is going to cost. We know that chipseal is around $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000 per kilometre and everything else is probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, quite expensive to do, so we need to have a budget figure. We need to know what the community is doing now and move forward. We will sit down as soon as possible. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, I believe that in order to accomplish this, we are going to have to do it as a pilot project. Like you say, it is one of those projects that we have to test out and see exactly how it will be applied and, more importantly, how it will hold up on the Dempster Highway and other roads in the region. I think it is something that we have to look at in light of climate change and other effects we are seeing. I think that this is something that we as government have to seriously consider. I would just like to ask the Minister again, is it possible to come forward with some sort of a pilot project? I know that it is not going to happen this summer. It probably could happen by next summer. Again, we do have to start those discussions. I would like to ask the Minister again if he can possibly get his people to work along with myself and the Hamlet of Fort McPherson and set up a meeting as soon as possible and see if we can get these discussions going anyhow. Thank you.
We certainly can commit to doing that. I think as a government we’re convinced that chipseal is a good way to protect the surface of the road. It’s also a safety mechanism in terms of dust suppressant. We don’t know what it’s going to cost to do it in the Delta. We need to find that out. We don’t know if it’s going to stand up in terms of having it built in that area of the NWT. Those things are going to be taken into consideration. We can’t commit that we’ll do it all this year but we can certainly do the planning, the costing, and try to include it in next year’s budget. We’ll commit to do that and meet with the community as soon as possible.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think this is a perfect opportunity for the region of the Beaufort-Delta to have this capacity, develop the capacity, and keep it in the region. There are other projects being looked at. I know Inuvik is doing a resurfacing job this summer and there’s the possibility of the extension of the Inuvik airport. There is also work in other airports. I think we have to look at the regional economics of this to see how feasible developing this industry in the Inuvik region is. With the potential of the Mackenzie Highway, this is something that we can look into the future of possibly needing this for more than just the Dempster Highway and other highways in the region, other airports, other infrastructure. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could look at the infrastructure that’s going to be needed to develop this industry in the North, make it a northern-based industry, keep it in the North so that we can do other communities and highways in the Northwest Territories.
As we move forward on trying to develop our roads, reconstruct our roads, we also want to improve the amount of chipseal and hardtop that we have on our infrastructure. We know that by having a long-term plan and commitment that, providing it’s feasible, providing it’s viable, providing it’s something that will be durable enough to put on to the Dempster and into the Delta, this will create opportunity. We know, having looked at the southern end of the Territories where we have been doing it for quite a few years now, we have companies here in Yellowknife and in Hay River that are generating a lot of work from the projects that we have. I’m assuming that the opportunity will open up a business possibility in the Member’s riding or Inuvik once we make the commitment to do the long-term work.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
