Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have listened to the exchange between the MLA for Mackenzie Delta and the Minister of ITI. I wanted to ask the Minister of Transportation in terms of public roads in the north end of the CANOL here, is that under GNWT’s jurisdiction in terms of public road maintenance and operations?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a stretch of road from the Yukon border, roughly 14 kilometres that is referred to as the Canol Road. In theory, I guess, the Public Highways Act and Motor Vehicles Act applies to this portion of road. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is, in theory, 14 kilometres of road that we have up there. I would encourage the Minister to take a trip up there and look at the conditions of this 14 kilometres of road to see where our priorities are in terms of fixing up our road. I know the Yukon has put thousands of dollars in the Yukon, so that would encourage visitors and encourage some mine companies to come into the Northwest Territories. I would ask the Minister, are there any plans of grading these 14 kilometres of road?
Mr. Speaker, this section of road is in a very remote portion of the NWT. The use of this stretch of road is very limited. In fact, we don’t have any enforcement of this portion of highway. As of yet, we have not had the opportunity to talk about any improvements. Our indications earlier on were that the people of the Sahtu were not completely in support of upgrading this road as they felt it was going to increase traffic as a result. So we need to have that discussion. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, last month we had six land rovers come up from B.C. Now, no matter what, people are going to start coming in. With notice of Mactung opening up, there is going to be more industry coming up and taking more interest. I would ask the Minister if he would look at types of enforcement or having this jurisdiction of road be improved. I would ask the Minister if he would be willing to look at some type of legislation or policy in terms of having some restrictions on people going to be using this road more in the future. Would the Minister look at types of regulations or legislation in terms of how do we start paying a little more close attention to this piece of road?
Mr. Speaker, there is currently public highway regulations along this stretch of highway. As I stated earlier, we do not have high volume traffic on this area. We don’t currently have any enforcement on this stretch of road. The Member has invited me to take a look at it. I would be pleased to look at this portion of highway at my earliest convenience. However, having said that, land rovers, other vehicles or ATVs would not be prohibited from travelling on a section of road. It is a public piece of highway. If there are vehicles that are going off the highway and especially ATVs travelling off of our public highways, we don’t have any regulation that would stop that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I guess when I say in the Sahtu we don’t have any roads, actually we do have roads. They were built in 1943 and 1944 from Norman Wells into the Yukon. Now we have only 14 kilometres of that road. I guess I would ask the Minister, if I was to invite him, if he would come and walk with me on these 14 kilometres of road here. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask if the Minister would consider looking at some type of restriction on the use of vehicles. Vehicles are going to be coming more and more into this part of the road. Again, I would ask him if he would commit to looking at some type of restrictive use of vehicles such as land rovers or ATVs. He is well aware of the issues I brought up in the past in regards to the damage that it does to the proposed park.
Mr. Speaker, I had indicated earlier that I would be pleased to talk to the people of the Sahtu as to their desire to see if there is any way to upgrading this road or provide provisions that would allow us to look at what we can do or at least look at the options. This is a 14-kilometre road. I am not sure if I have as much free time as the Member to walk a whole 14 kilometres. I have committed that I would look at the situation. I would be pleased to look at the portion of road that he is referring to and try to do a visit and maybe at the time when he is walking, we can coordinate our travel.
However, once again, it is a very difficult area to provide enforcement to. It is very remote. There is not a whole lot of traffic that travels this road. We don’t have resources that we can dedicate. However, I am assuming there would be opportunity where we can provide spot-checks if that is what is required.
Again, I don’t know if we can put in regulations that would stop vehicles such as land rovers to come on this trail. It is a public highway, but we can look at options. I would be pleased to sit down and have that discussion with the Member and people from the Sahtu. Thank you.
