Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I spoke about the need to work with the leadership in the Beaufort-Delta to ensure that the $150 million commitment to building the Tuk-Inuvik highway appears on the upcoming federal budget. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Transportation update the Assembly on the steps that he and his officials are taking to make this a reality for the residents of the Beaufort-Delta? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The news for the $150 million was very exciting indeed. I think it took a lot of work, and of course the work wasn’t only carried out by myself. We had the mayors of Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik very involved with presenting the case and building up the arguments why this road needed to be done. We had the Inuvialuit government onside. Of course, the MLAs raised the profile of this issue many times in this House. We had our Premier meeting with the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers across the floor here, or on this side of the House, that met with the different Cabinet Ministers to raise the issue. The Department of Transportation played a role and this resulted in some dollars being flagged. Unfortunately, this process was never completely ratified.
We certainly don’t want to lose momentum on this initiative. We have already talked with the working group; as recently as this morning there was a meeting. We fully intend to engage with the federal Minister as soon as we know who the appointment will be. That’s going to happen in the next little while, we understand, and the folks in Ottawa will be getting back together in June. We have our documents drafted. We want to indicate that this initiative should carry forward. We want to be able to meet with the new Minister. We will, of course, be extending an invitation to the Minister and we will look how we can fully engage, keep everybody involved, and keep this whole initiative moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister almost answered all of my questions there. I understand we’re still waiting for the Prime Minister to announce his Cabinet and there is some slippage in the engaging of the federal government. I’d like some assurances from the Minister that he and his officials are ready to hit the ground running to engage the new federal Minister of Transportation at the earliest opportunity. Thank you.
I think the Members of this House did a very good job over the last while about raising the profile of our infrastructure needs across the Territories. We have a motion in this House indicating that the Mackenzie Valley Highway is very important to us, and we want to see that flagged as one of our top priorities. Our government has put together a Federal Engagement Strategy that lays out a number of areas where we’d like to see investment. The Mackenzie Valley Highway is very high on this list. We’ve shared that information with the federal government. We’ve had private meetings with the different Ministers. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Lawrence Canon at the time when he was Transportation and Infrastructure Minister. We’ve talked with Chuck Strahl, John Baird, and we’ve had very good support from Minister Leona Aglukkaq over the last while and we expect we’ll have good support from her ongoing.
We have drafted our documents, we have our letters ready. We just need to know who is the person that will be working with us on this as the new Minister, and I fully intend to engage as soon as possible. Thank you.
I also referenced the hard work that the leadership in the Beaufort-Delta has put in to ensuring that Canada’s national highway system reaches coast to coast to coast. Can the Minister assure the Assembly that he will engage with the Beaufort-Delta leadership in advancing this project, which are a pivotal partner on the whole road itself, and bring them down to Ottawa to help talk to the federal government on this issue? Thank you.
We’re very eager to travel to Ottawa. There are a lot of issues we want to talk about. There is still an application from the Northwest Territories to the Green Fund. The City of Yellowknife had a submission on behalf of the Northland Trailer Court. There was a hydro line applied for that we haven’t received any response. There are many issues that we need to tackle. There are issues about infrastructure, ongoing stable funding for long-term investment, and there’s also the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and more specifically now, the $150 million that was flagged in the last budget. We want to carry that forward and we fully intend to travel to Ottawa.
Of course, if there’s an opportunity to bring any additional delegates or additional people that are involved in this project with us, we’ll do so. Having said that, at the end of the day, the Minister usually dictates who he is willing to meet with. However, we’ll put in the request. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Listening to the Minister with all the projects that he mentioned, not all the projects, they’re not going to be fully funded. The $150 million was put in the federal budget by the federal government, but it was not ratified. All of the other projects weren’t in the budget. Mr. Speaker, we just want to make sure that the $150 million gets allocated properly to the Tuk-Inuvik highway in making sure that the Minister goes down on that approach.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister also consider taking some EDI members to Ottawa with him for this meeting? Thank you.
As the Minister I can’t only focus on a certain part of the Northwest Territories. I have other responsibilities. I would not be doing justice if I didn’t speak about long-term stable funding for infrastructure, and Mr. Menicoche would be very disappointed if I didn’t raise Highway No. 7, Highway No. 6, other highways, the Bear River Bridge, the Peel River Bridge and those initiatives that need attention. I think we have to be able to address all the different needs across the Territories, and at the same time focusing on some of the areas that have moved forward.
It’s been very exciting in the life of this government to be able to move discussions on the Mackenzie Valley Highway forward. We’ve managed to get the federal government to come onside and invest jointly with us on the work that needs to be done, the PDRs, and more specifically now, some indication that they’re willing to put dollars up for construction. We need to know what the long-term plan is; we need to be able to work around it if it’s going to be still an investment they’re willing to move forward. So there’s lots of work that has to be done, Mr. Speaker, and we certainly can commit that we’ll continue to push it forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
