Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation getting back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the possible realignment of Highway No. 4, the Ingraham Trail, past the former Giant Mine site.
Back in November of last year the Minister and I had a bit of an exchange on some question about where the government was at with the realignment. Back in November the Minister stated that options would be narrowed down, and engineering and environmental reviews would be done, and that that would be done in short order. That was seven months ago and I’d like to just perhaps start with getting an update from the Minister of Transportation where that realignment sits with his department today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I have to thank the Member for being patient on this project, something that all of us had to do as we waited for the remediation team to put their plans together.
A lot of that work has been concluded. We’ve taken the opportunity over the last while to meet with the various organizations, including the remediation team and the Public Works and Government Services Canada to look at the different issues that needed to be addressed. We’ve also been meeting with the Aboriginal governments in the area, and we now have a schedule, and that schedule involves planned construction for this coming fall. That means there is a lot of work to do.
We want to conclude some of our final discussions on the route, we want to be able to put the business plan together for all the stakeholder requirements and to have construction move forward. The different routes have been narrowed from three down to two, after we had the remediation team reject one of the routes as it wasn’t suitable for what they needed. So there is work that is happening. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the next six months, but we would like to meet the schedule, have the construction start, have a construction period and have the realignment open by the fall or early winter of 2012. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for the update on the realignment, and I guess moving from three options to two in seven months isn’t such a bad thing. It’s down to two options. Maybe the Minister could let us know what those two options are and whether or not the option to bypass the mine infrastructure and with the possibility of including a possible expansion at Fred Henne Territorial Park is in the mix in all of these discussions. Thank you.
I certainly can confirm that option three corridor has been discontinued. It does not meet the needs of what the team requires. We have recognized that this is a remediation project but it’s also the Ingraham Trail Realignment Project that has to fit along both the group’s needs or both the project needs. We are not looking at this point to deal with any additional camping space for Fred Henne Park. That’s not something that’s part of this project.
I think if we’re not thinking about possible opportunities from the road realignment that we’re missing the boat.
As I mentioned earlier, back in 2003 there were studies, reports on the need for more RV space in Yellowknife for both local residents and the travelling public, the tourists that come north. If we aren’t even having the discussion with ITI on the possible expansion at Fred Henne Territorial Park because of a realignment, again, I think we’re missing the boat. Is it too late? The question I have for the Minister is: is it too late to not have a look at that possibility?
The Giant Mine Project and the Ingraham Trail Realignment Project are not on the same boat as ITI and Fred Henne Park. Those discussions have been taking place. Right now it would be a different initiative. It would not be part of the dollars earmarked for a realignment that we’re looking at.
This is something we need to confirm as to what route we’re going to use. Right now we are looking at two possible routes. We’d like to narrow that down to one within the next little while, within the next month or so. A park is not part of that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government will be paying the lion’s share of the capital costs to realign the Ingraham Trail. As I mentioned earlier, if we are not looking at every possible opportunity to advance the interests -- and in this case it would be another department, it would be ITI, it would be Tourism that would be expanding Fred Henne Territorial Park -- again, we are missing the boat. I didn’t quite hear the Minister say it’s too late, but why is it too late? Why aren’t we looking at that possibility? I think it’s a real possibility, given some of the maps I saw three years ago when this was first brought up; almost four years ago.
The realignment will be funded by the Federal Remediation Team and from the GNWT Giant Mine Liability Account. There is no avenue to tie in a park with those types of resources. There has been discussion with ITI. I believe the department was not able to come up with the capital dollars for any type of camping services or camping facilities along this road. They may be able to do that at a later date; however, at this point we have not made any allowance for camping as part of this.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
