Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was on the Mackenzie Valley Highway, particularly the Tuk-Inuvik section. I mentioned that it’s a great opportunity and we made great progress with the department. I want to thank the Minister of Transportation and his department for working so well with the community in the past year. We still have a lot more to do. Can I ask the Minister of Transportation what actions we are taking to promote the highway to the federal government?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This has been an issue that has been on the drawing board for some time. We have moved forward fairly quickly in the area of Tuk and Inuvik with a project description report, a report that we had anticipated was going to take several years and ended up taking a little over a year. That’s been submitted for review. We are, and have been, raising it with the federal government. We, as early as last week, met with the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of INAC and this was raised as something we wanted to talk further about. Also, while attending the National Council on the Ministers responsible for Transportation I had an opportunity to have a brief chat with Minister Strahl and we agreed that we needed to get together and have further discussions on infrastructure issues in the Northwest Territories. This would be part of the discussion. I’ll also be meeting with Minister Aglukkaq while we’re down there in a couple weeks.
Since the Minister has begun lobbying the federal government, when does the Minister anticipate the Environmental Impact Review Board process will be completed?
The EIRB process is something that’s outside of our jurisdiction at this point. We don’t control the process, however, we hope that the final reports or approvals for the Tuk-Inuvik section of the highway will be ready sometime next summer.
You know, I’m glad to hear the process is moving so quickly. The sooner this project gets completed for the cost of living for my constituents, the cost of food, the fuel, transportation between the communities and all up and down the valley making it accessible for people to take their families out on holidays a lot cheaper. It’s beneficial for the sovereignty of Canada, because I always say I always have all the oil and gas in the northern Beaufort. Will this government receive the necessary permits from the Environmental Impact Review Board? What are the Minister’s next steps in continuing the progress on this important road link?
A big challenge, the biggest challenge, and will continue to be the biggest challenge, will be to secure appropriate funding to continue the work on the road once all the approvals are in place. We would expect that as soon as we hear positive response, we would, of course, move forward and try to secure those dollars to do further work. We would also have to start the process to develop more detailed road design. While I can’t commit to any dollars for the life of this government, I would expect that those issues will be brought forward and will continue to take precedence. The work would take probably more than a year to complete.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
