Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the benefits to the residents of Nahendeh by having an improved Highway No. 7 this year. Now, that’s what I’ve been talking about for years. Once we improve our Highway No. 7, we will improve the economy, we’ll improve tourism and we’ll improve and lower costs of living.
I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, we’ve got a budget sitting coming up in February/March, can he make a business case through his Department of Transportation to allocate extra resources to Highway No. 7 in the upcoming budget?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. Certainly, as we move forward I have made a commitment in this House in the past that Highway No. 7, if and when we find additional capital dollars, we would try to identify funding for Highway No. 7 as we move forward. That is still our intention.
I’m glad of the Minister’s commitment to Highway No. 7. I would, as well, like the Minister to make a business case to our Cabinet for increased investment to Highway No. 7 in the upcoming budget for 2013-2014. Can the Minister do that, working with his Cabinet colleagues?
Again, I have made the commitment in the past. There will be additional funding for Highway No. 7. I certainly look forward to that as the process moves along. We’ll hear more about that at a later date.
With the upcoming budget, will it have plans to chipseal the first 20 kilometres of Highway No. 7 from the BC border towards Fort Liard?
As the Member knows, there are a number of areas of concern on Highway No. 7. In fact, several years ago the section from the BC border to the community was chipsealed. The surface wasn’t such to hold the chipseal in place and needed to be reconstructed. We had reconstructed 20 kilometres of that portion of road. We need to look at the reconstruction to the Liard junction, I believe 38 kilometres. At that time we certainly will look to see if we have any further capital dollars to allow us to chipseal the portion from Fort Liard to the BC border. That is certainly in the plans, but it will require capital dollars to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to urge the Minister, once again, to seriously consider chipsealing Highway No. 7 from the border towards Fort Liard, the 20 kilometres that we had reconstructed. It will just make life so much easier for the residents of Fort Liard that travel those roads, and the men and equipment that are generating revenue by working in BC.
That will have to be balanced with the other urgent demands for the highway further down from the community of Fort Liard. We certainly hope to find a balance to find the money to get the chipsealing done.
Reconstruction of that highway is a major concern for us. I’ve mentioned it before. It will probably require upwards of $200 million to completely reconstruct the highway. We need to reconstruct portions of that highway that are in desperate need of it. That should be where the capital dollars go first.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year the Minister of Education said that his department was in the preliminary stages of finding partners and funds for the stand-alone Aurora College campus here in Yellowknife. Often we get inaction confused with incompetence, so the fact is we want to know what is actually happening.
Is anything being done? What progress, to date, could be placed before this House as results to getting a stand-alone college in Yellowknife?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular stand-alone campus has been in the works since I became Minister of Education back in 2007. It has been in discussion before me as well. What it has come down to is the resources that we have in the capital. The $75 million a year that we have for capital infrastructure can only go so far. We talk about the new hospital, we talk about renovation at the hospital, over to the Aurora College stand-alone campus. Some of those areas that we have been working towards that are critical need as well.
When I presented in the House about the capital infrastructure, I did mention that I’m working closely with the Department of Public Works and Services because they have certain guidelines that we have to follow. We have had meetings in the past with various private sectors, as well, having possibly the option of lease to own. At the same time, it does impact the borrowing limit of the GNWT. There are implications. I still have to work with Public Works and Services to make this a reality. We are continuing to look at exploring options as well.
As the Education Minister says, of a critical need, I would have thought the first thing out of his mouth would have been education is a critical need for Northerners, not excuses why we won’t move forward on this particular project.
What options, really, have been developed in advancing the Aurora College project, and what is he willing to put on the table today that shows us we’re moving forward, as opposed to backwards, under his leadership?
We are moving forward, not backward. We have made progress. The discussion that we’ve been having, we extended our lease agreement this past summer, as well, with Northern United Place up to three years and potentially up to five years, depending on the progress we are making with Public Works and Services identifying the funds and resources and potential if there’s going to be a partnership involved. Those are the areas.
Education is a priority of this government. My department spent over $300 million on education factors. We will continue to pursue that. It’s a great investment into our people.
Well, the results seem to prove otherwise, that education isn’t a priority of this particular Minister. When I asked him back on May 31, 2012, about actually laying a plan before the House, giving us some clear definitions of the partners, et cetera, on timelines, he wrote me a letter back, which I tabled in the House almost two weeks ago, and it shows nothing other than says they’re continuing the lease.
What can this Minister do by demonstrating real progress has been made on this particular file? What can he tell Northerners? What can he table before the House? What can he actually do to prove he’s solved any problem on this particular issue?
What I can do is present this to the committee of the GNWT and put it as part of the priority for my department, but at the end of the day, $75 million is the number we’re working with.
Again, the hospital and other sectors that are out there are in desperate need, the schools and so forth. Those come into play, because we are talking about education factors as well. We talked about early childhood earlier. We need to heavily invest in early childhood too.
It is a pressing issue that we’re faced with. What I can do, again, as the Minister responsible to deliver that as part of the priority for this government, but at the end of the day, we’re dealing with $75 million for the whole Northwest Territories. That will be my initiative to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In scouring the Hansard over the last five years, I found over 30 instances where the Minister keeps saying I’m doing discussion, plans, and it goes on and on and on. The Minister’s defence is we have other priorities. There seemed to be money when they wanted to build an office building downtown immediately. They put an office building over education. This is not a new issue.
I call, once again, for the Minister to answer the question. What is he going to lay before the House to prove that they’ve actually done something on the issue of trying to build a stand-alone college here in Yellowknife, because thus far I’ve seen nothing?
I’m not sure where the Member’s been, but there have been new schools up on the horizon. At the same time, this is an area that we’ve always, always brought forward. But, again, it’s a number figure; $75 million is what we work with on an annual basis. This has been of interest to us as well. Of course I want a stand-alone campus myself, as the Minister responsible, the best resources that we should have, the technology. But at the end of the day, it’s number crunching: $75 million. I will be pursuing that forward as an initiative, as capital infrastructure and then the decision will be made from there the following year. I will continue to push that forward.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve indicated in this House before, the waterways in Hay River are very important. It’s important to keep the waterways in Hay River open to industry, to commercial fishing, to the community flood safety.
My questions today will be for the Minister of Transportation. What has the Department of Transportation done over the last year to do any kind of dredging program in the Hay River area?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve supplied $60,000 in a contribution to help work with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Town of Hay River to advance this project along, but we certainly need to be looking at the federal government for an infrastructure program so that we can get the work done that’s required in the port of Hay River.
I know the department has done some of the minor dock maintenance stuff. I’m wondering if the department has done any assessment of the Hay River channel, the main channel, to do any of that stuff.
The federal dredging program ended in 1994. There hasn’t been a program in place since then. The federal government has completed hydrographical surveys of the port of Hay River. They’ve identified several areas of concerns, but yet they haven’t been able to come up with the resources that are necessary to, in a meaningful way, dredge the port of Hay River. Again, that’s an area that we have identified as a concern and something that we need to continue to address with the federal government.
My next question for the Minister is: Has the Minister had any direct discussions with his colleagues, the federal Minister of Transportation in this area of dredging the Hay River?
Yes, we have, and I’ve mentioned this in a previous response to the Member, is that we hope that come 2014 there is a new infrastructure plan put forward by the federal government that the Government of the Northwest Territories can avail itself of to cover off situations where we can partner with the federal government on getting programs like dredging in the port of Hay River done and other infrastructure projects around this territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m wondering if the department has any commitments for the upcoming years to look at putting any more dollars of the territorial government into dredging.
Our hope is that a new plan will come forward in 2014. In the absence of that, that is something we would consider.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today about the proposed Inuvik-Tuk highway, my questions are for the Minister of Transportation. The questions that have been asked by my colleagues this afternoon are a perfect segue to the questions that I’m going to ask. I mean, when I hear people talking about where are we going to get money for the new hospital, a stand-alone college, reconstructing Highway No. 7, everybody’s on the same page today. We all want big capital projects.
With respect to the Inuvik-Tuk highway, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation what is the total capital budget of this government, not for all capital but in relation to transportation infrastructure and roads. What is the annual budget?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were just before the House earlier this session with the Department of Transportation’s capital plan. On highways it was just over $23 million.
We are proceeding along with spending money to look at the feasibility and viability of building an all-weather road from Inuvik to Tuk. But even if the project came in at $200 million and the federal government put in $150 million, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation where is our government going to get their share?
The project would be connected to the increase in our borrowing limit. We would access that to put our portion of the construction of that road.
We would borrow money for our share of that road construction. What puts this project in a different category than borrowing money for any project of all the priorities that have been talked about here today and talked about every day when it comes to the aspirations of the people of the Northwest Territories? What puts that project into the borrowing category?
Mr. Speaker, what puts this project in that special light is the fact that Canada is one of the only countries in the circumpolar world that doesn’t have road access to the Arctic Ocean. Certainly, that is something that the federal government felt, from a security and a sovereignty standpoint, was something that they wanted to see happen.
We will have a road network in this country that will go from coast to coast to coast, finally, with the construction of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway. It is a project that the federal government deems of having national significance. It is a partnership. The federal government is committed to the $150 million. We do need to, once the environmental assessment is done in the new year, sit down with the federal government on the funding arrangement. Our hope is that it would be 75-25 cost sharing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister speaks of the desire of the federal government from a sovereignty point of view to have this road built. What about the aspirations of the people of the Northwest Territories? How are we going to calculate whether the significant capital investment of this government and the ongoing costs to maintain and upkeep this road is in the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories? By what process are you going to gauge that, given all of the competition of these capital dollars? How are you going to find that out? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, on an annual basis, we do go through the business planning process. The leaders in the Beaufort-Delta have certainly been talking about the Inuvik-Tuk road for a number of years now, decades in fact. We see it as the first stage in the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway that will be integral to the economic growth and success of this territory.
It is something that, with a partnership with the federal government, we feel that we can get it done. It is in an area of our territory right now, in the Beaufort-Delta, where there is not a lot of equipment moving, there is not a lot of work and it is economically depressed. We feel that a project of this size, this magnitude, will really invigorate the region, get people to work and also help with the cost of living in the community of Tuktoyaktuk and any goods that are flown out of Tuktoyaktuk to other communities in the Nunakput riding. We do see the advance of exploration of both onshore and offshore with the development of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway as something that is desperately needed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
