Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very disappointed with the Budget Address yesterday. There was no mention in regard to the access road for Aklavik. I’d like to congratulate my colleague from Tuktoyaktuk; they received recognition in the Budget Address.
After reviewing the budget last night, I was again not able to find anywhere in that budget reference to a motion that I passed in this House regarding an access road to gravel sources in Tuktoyaktuk to site 177 and an access road from Aklavik to Willow River to that gravel source.
This issue has been around since 1991 by way of motions from the Beaufort region, from the communities, and also from me as a Member of this House for 13 years. Yet somehow it has been totally erased or eliminated from the planning process of this government. This project has received government funding by way of the community access road project for several years, in which they’ve built two kilometres of road, because the cost of moving gravel from the Willow River site to the community…. This government has known about this project for some time.
The residents of Aklavik are very disappointed that this is not being recognized by this government. Mr. Speaker, this government has been divvying up money among themselves by way of the Building Canada Fund and the strategic initiative funds. Again, a large number of these projects have nowhere been previously budgeted or previously planned for in the planning process of this government.
I can remember standing up in this House many times and being told by Ministers across the floor that in order to get any projects, by way of roads connecting communities to highways or expanding our highway system, it had to be part of the NWT Highway Strategy. These new projects aren’t even close to being in the NWT strategy.
Mr. Speaker, I’m very disappointed in regard to what I heard yesterday and how we’ve been treated on this side of the House. As a Member who’s been here for 13 years, this is the worst I’ve seen of dialogue between Members of the 16th Assembly compared to what we did in the 13th Assembly. That was a major budget exercise then.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
As a Member for the 13th Assembly, we went through a similar exercise, but at least the 23 members of the 13th Assembly were involved. We knew which departments were going to be cut. We knew exactly what our situation was so we could go back to our constituents and explain it to them.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to fight with regard to the constituents of the Mackenzie Delta and the access road for Aklavik. I have to state that I’m very disappointed that there was nothing mentioned in the budget.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
