Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation. Earlier this session I did a statement on the need for funds to install a bridge at Willow River.
As we speak, the community is doing a gravel haul up to Willow River. It’s a perfect opportunity to put this bridge in place. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a chinook up in my riding and with this warm weather we’re expecting an early spring, so this work needs to be done before April.
Will the Minister work with the community to ensure that we can spend these funds before April and invoice later? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working with the community from our regional office in Inuvik. Our superintendent has had contact with the community that’s going to be installing the bridge, hauling the bridge from Inuvik and I think another piece of the bridge from the South. Also, this concept of them spending the money now and then requesting that it be preapproved from the following season is something that we’re looking at seriously. We have a budget now, one to do the entire bridge from them and then one for work that is immediate. So it looks very reasonable from what I can see and we’re moving forward on that. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s great news and I look forward to this bridge being hauled into Aklavik and later to the work site.
With these funds, the community can start putting this bridge in place, and also I mentioned they were doing a gravel haul. At this time of year, the departments usually are on a spending frenzy here.
Will the Minister work with his department to ensure that they stockpile gravel in the community of Aklavik in order to fuel projects this summer? Thank you.
The gravel is something we have worked on every year. I think last year we were okay. We had a bit of a surplus of gravel. If the gravel sources are down, then, we do have a granular program. I think probably the community has one and we would do one with the Department of Transportation as well. So we will continue to do that. We will also agree with the latest numbers that we have they’re reasonable and the DOT will reimburse the community if they spend the money to haul the bridge in from Inuvik and also from Nelson, I believe, because there’s still one piece of the bridge down there. Thank you.
We have just over a month of time to do this work. That’s not a lot of time, especially with the warm weather coming closer. As I mentioned, Housing actually is stockpiling gravel in the community, but the contractor is not planning to put this road in place due to the cost of the next couple of years. So I strongly encourage the Minister and the department to ensure that they stockpile enough for the next couple of years here. They will be making the road up to the bridge site, but it’s not planned up to the gravel source. Thank you.
We’re getting into the funding of this road because we’re hoping that the road is completed all the way to the gravel source. So we’ll continue to work with the community and fund what we can on the road annually. We have a limited amount of funds and we have quite a number of projects throughout the North under accessing this Access Road Program, but on this road here we’ve begun to fund it. We’re looking at it. The community is starting to see that we’re serious about getting that bridge in and start building the road to the gravel source at Willow River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
