Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the community access program is a really successful program because it starts to, you know, work with communities in some of the work around some of the planning and design for access roads. So right now in plan for 20232024, where this budget is concerned, we have some embankment work, surface improvements, drainage improvements, the that's more leaning to some of the specific projects. So that's just one example of some of the projects that we have going on. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think that my question was answered there about what projects those are. Like, maybe I guess the better way to ask is which communities are those projects in and how much is that? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I can get back to the Member. That's not really specific to some of the capital stuff that we have so I can respond back to the Member with some specific projects that are more operational. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Yes, thank you. Any information that can be provided I would appreciate it. I want to just talk about the Great Bear River Bridge planning. I remember bidding on this project in 2018, and I'm sitting here now, four years later, and it's not progressing very much. I know that there has been work done but I'm hearing from the communities that the engagement has not been very great and that they're concerned that there's going to be a loss of this money and work outside of the territory. Can the Minister or the department speak a little bit more about what this entails under the planning. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, some of the planned work for the Great Bear River Bridge includes obtaining regulatory permits. We have a tender award construction contract. Camp, site access construction, granular material, bridge foundation, fabrication of geo and engineering services. So we are looking at some of the scoping for this work and also working with the communities as well to ensure that we get community engagement because this is a really important project. It'll be the second biggest bridge here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm hoping that one day I get to walk across that bridge while I can still walk.
My next question is around deferred maintenance. So when we look at these amounts here, is this to actually bring down our costs of deferred maintenance as in to start tackling the overall amounts, or is this just sort of a keeping up with the BandAid solutions? Thank you.
Thank you, MLA. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, deferred maintenance is the practice of postponing prudent but nonessential maintenance activities and our repairs to some of our capital infrastructure in order to save some of the costs. So some of the projects in the work plan, we look at things like some of the funding is based on maintenance priorities with 20 percent of major asset inventory. We also, at a minimum, assets to be inspected once every five years. So we do have a plan. I'm going to see if David wanted to speak a little bit more about some of the program. Thanks.
Thank you. ADM Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Most definitely we continue to work away at the critical aspects of our deferred maintenance backlog. It's not a dollar for dollar allocation. It's important to recognize that. An example would be the demolition of HH Williams. You know, we would have put a few million towards demolition of that facility but it would bring down the deficit of deferred maintenance by significantly more than that. So it's very much leveraging work like that and also building new assets. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Any other questions, comments from Members under asset management? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I heard the Minister once mention we were talking about highways, and she had mentioned that it's kind of our highways are kind of graded on a comfort level, I think, and she said something like four out of ten is what we look at which, I guess, isn't all that great. And when I look at the highway system here in the territories, you know, anything that had pavement on it, we're chip sealing. So I guess I'd like to know from the department is at any point do we look at the or do we compare the chip seal to actually paving and what would be the cost benefit, I guess, of one or the other and because I guess what I when I'm in Alberta, you can see the highways. When the drive through the highway systems, it's paved, and they're a lot nicer and they seem to stand up. So I'm just wondering why we spend so much on or we spend our time on chip sealing and not paving. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, every year we invest a lot of money into some of our road infrastructure, things like chip seal for an example. And I think you're well aware of that very well. I'm going to see if David can speak. We've got a table here of all the work that we have planned for the 2023 and a list of all the different work by region. So I'll get David to perhaps summarize that because we're not going to be reading three pages of a big list of things we're doing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Just to go back, I think the question was are chip sealing versus pavement, why are we going from replacing pavement to chip seal; is there a cost?
If I can just get David to speak about it. Thanks.
ADM Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, very much we work with other jurisdictions and the Transportation Association of Canada looking at road standards, and utilizing that with respect to our traffic counts here in the territory, optimizing the work we need per highway based on the usage and the life cycle of our roads.
As the Minister alluded to, there's significant work planned for 20232024 on a number of our highways. I won't read the three pages but there is significant chip sealing we're looking at next year to maintain the quality and integrity and safety of our roads and highways. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. MLA for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the other is drainage and culverts. We've had a number of washouts because of high water, and I'm just wondering, I guess, have we, I guess, assessed all the culverts along the highway to see if they meet standards, because it seems like, you know, this last couple years we've been having a frequent number of washouts and the amount of water coming down, the culverts just can't handle them. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, you know, we've had a number of concerns along a lot of our highways in terms of flooding, the impacts, and the costs associated with getting these fixed. I'm going to see if David can speak a little more further on that. Thank you.
Thank you. ADM Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister mentioned, the impacts of climate change are certainly a reality with respect to the resilience of our infrastructure, and culverts and bridges are very much in that category. Our team inspect all culverts and bridges regularly, every three years, to maintain ensure that they're functioning and operating within proper norms. That being said, there is quite a bit of work that needs to be done and is being done to maintain those culverts. In the case of the ones that have been impacted very much, we're looking at those to ensure that they align with the national standards. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. MLA for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And aligning I guess with the Canadian standards, do we have anything inhouse with respect to standards and design criteria for culverts and drainage in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yes, we do. We have staff that does all that work. But I'm going to get David to just speak a little more in detail on some of the great work that we're able to do internally. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. ADM Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Definitely we do, an amazing team looking at all our assets. We actually align to some of the best standards in Canada through the Ontario bridge standards, for example. We're also doing a climate change vulnerability assessment review of all our assets working with our sister departments, including culverts. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the work that's going to be done on the highway, I notice that, I guess and it might be there somewhere but I don't see, I guess Highways 2, 4, 5, and 6 on there. And I guess my concern is probably more so Hay River, which is Highway 2, about Kilometre 42 to 48, which is in dire need of work. Can the Minister tell me if that's included in work for this coming summer? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't believe the work is planned for that. I'm looking at my deputy minister here for that. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Loutitt.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct, at this point there's no plans for that area. We are doing maintenance on several different sections of roads on all of our highways. But we have prioritized the major projects and the areas most in need of repairs at this point. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess, you know, when we look at the traffic corridor, you know, traffic coming in from the south, heavy trucks, we're looking at Highway No. 1, and then if it's barge traffic, it's coming in to Hay River and, you know, we have quite a few corners there, we have no shoulders. So is there anything, I guess, in the works to look at maybe road straightening as well as road widening on either well, I guess from the border all the way into Hay River? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to ask Mr. Moore if he can speak a little
Thank you. ADM Moore.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Most definitely, Highway No. 1, we are looking at from near the border up to Hay River. We've examined that highway very closely. As the deputy mentioned, we are prioritizing our dollars to the areas of greatest need, which in the case of Highway No. 2, for example, would be from Kilometre Zero to 42, with the work being planned for the summer of 2023. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
No further questions. Thank you.
