Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand there was an RV park that was privately run, and they have burnt down. But, again, I'm I wouldn't I mean, I'm not from Tuktoyaktuk, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, there is a private RV park in the community of Tuk. We have and then we have the because there's so many RVers that and tourists that come up to the community, the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk came upon themselves to try to solve the problem because it's just been too much vehicles coming in, nowhere to park, parking everywhere. So they put allotted like, alloted from 1 to 25. They're paying for that out of their hamlet budget. So under the Hamlet Act, they fall under the Government of the Northwest Territories. They should be getting funds. Are they going to start being able to get funds for the community of Tuktoyaktuk for the RV park in the community? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. And I think that would be under operations. And so as this is capital, but I'll give it to the Minister and then since if she has any comments or not, then thank you. Minister.
Madam Chair, I'm not going to create a new project sitting here in the chair. But what I can do is I know we do have a new regional superintendent, I believe I hope in place already for the Beaufort Delta, or soon to be in place in the Beaufort Delta. And that seems like exactly the kind of thing that that individual should be going into Tuktoyaktuk and really, you know, making it their flagship project to sort this out. It's the first there are community infrastructure funds for tourism that the community may want to be applying for, and they could be getting the support of the regional office to do that. Thank you.
Small, final question, Member for Nunakput.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that because it's the lack of support in the community of Tuk for that tourism. It's a lack of support our government is giving them. Using their own money that's taking away from the community for their roads, for the water, their sewage, for sporting events. It's not that we're not creating a new a new expenditure here. It's just what we're not doing. And I see two pages on this of everything else being covered but that. Tuk shouldn't the mayor and the council shouldn't be picking and choosing what they could do with what little they have. It's not a new project. It's I want to make that clear. This is a project that they our department fell short on, and we need it sorted out. So it's got to be looked at in the future. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to you know, we had the fire here this you know, I guess in the spring and in the you know, this last one here and some of it impacted some of the parks. I'm just wondering if any of this infrastructure any of these infrastructure projects have been impacted by the fire. Are we seeing anything being pushed back because of that? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So we've seen some delays to the 20232024 plan. Obviously what we're looking to see approved now is the 20242025 plan, so looking forward. There have been certainly delays in the current fiscal year's plan, and I can certainly provide a bit of a list to the Member if that's easier. I mean, yes, there's delays, but hopefully yes. Yes, I can provide a list if that's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, like, I guess, just to use, say, Alexander Falls campsite and Louise, there was some extensive damage. Not to the structures themselves, but to the area around it, which I suspect was going to compromise the use of it possibly this summer. And so that's kind of concern to me because tourism is going to be very important in the South Slave. You know, with the low water levels, shipping problems, and all that, we're seeing a decrease, I guess, in opportunities there. So, you know, we're going to be losing stalls and that. So I'm just wondering if and this, I guess, is more of an operational, I'm sorry. But we have, you know, two tourism operators that we could be supporting who do have beds to take up that slack. Is that something that we are looking at doing to kind of offset some of that? Thank you.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So what I have with me is the 20222023 delays. And with respect simply to Hay River and to parks in particular, I don't see that there's been any expressed delays there. There was a bit of a delay in getting the fish processing plant online, but it wasn't damaged.
As far as any damage to facilities and damage to park facilities specifically, that would likely be coming in either in a supplementary appropriation under the infrastructure budget or into the future infrastructure budget because that damage assessment hasn't been done yet. Obviously hoping that it would fall under the Disaster Assistance Policy and see funding through the federal government. But, again, without the assessments done, I can't I certainly can't put it forward here. And then more generally, I mean, yes, tourism broadly speaking is really more of an operations issue in terms of what supports are there. I'm quite live to it, Madam Chair, and the week after we are done here, I have one more FPT, and it's in tourism. So it's not lost on me. Thank you.
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you know, that we talked about, you know, fire damage and the impact on tourism. So I'm glad that, you know, your department is on it and watching it and understand the importance of tourism in the South Slave and throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Are there any further questions under tourism and parks? Seeing none.
Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, tourism and parks, infrastructure investments, $2,978,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, Members. Please return now to the departmental summary found on page 47.
Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, infrastructure or sorry, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, 20242025 Capital Estimates, $4,428,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is now complete?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Did you wish to switch out your witnesses, Minister?
Yes, please.
Sergeantatarms, please escort the witness from the Chamber.
Please introduce your witness for the record.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I now have the pleasure of introducing Gary Brennan. He is the assistant deputy minister for regional operations for infrastructure.
Welcome. Committee, we will now consider the Department of Infrastructure which begins on page 55. We will defer the departmental totals and review the estimates by activity beginning on page 56 with asset management with information items on page 57 and 58. Do you have any questions or comments? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First off, I just wanted to note again that something I had said in the opening remarks for the capital estimates is that we see a lot of 100 percent dollars this time around in the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan, which is a huge chunk of these large capital projects that are $82 million here. So that being said, it's great to see that this is not even though it's an $82 million sum, the majority of it is not our money, which is great. It's going to be an influx into our territory and our communities, which is sorely needed.
When I look at all the highway reconstruction jobs that are going on, again, the only one that's not at 100 percent funded is Highway 10, so which is at 75, which isn't too bad either.
I guess just to get into some of the details of this, I'm really quite concerned given our summer and my statement the other day about climate change and our lack of preparedness. I'm seeing that the Fort Simpson liquefied natural gas plant is in here. And it's only at $500,000 right now. Oh, you know what, sorry, I'm in the wrong spot for that one. My apologies. Sorry, I'll go back to the Frank Channel bridge.
The Frank Channel bridge, it's my understanding that the last when the Minister gave us the update was that they were awarding the engineer the owner's engineer for the contract. I see that that is closed. Can the Minister tell us if that work has actually been awarded and is now start has started? Where is that at? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
I'll take that to Mr. Brennan, please.
Mr. Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, I can confirm that the engineering contract has been awarded. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister or department tell me who was awarded that contract and how much it was for? Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so it was awarded to Associated Engineering Limited. And I do not have the amount of the contract here today. Thank you.
Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's fine. I would like to just ask a little bit about the Redknife River Bridge replacement. It's my understanding that this comes the money for this work will be coming from De Beers in exchange for some sort of a regulatory offset that they were doing. Can the Minister speak to whether that is the truth, and how much that project is going to bring in? Thank you.
Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, so De Beers Canada was required by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada to do a fish habitat compensation, and that was just part of the regulatory process that they went through. They worked with, I gather, multiple departments of the GNWT in order to identify an appropriate site where they could maximize the usage of that perspective funding for a project that was in need here for the Northwest Territories, and they identified that the Redknife River Bridge, which was built back in 1971, was way beyond its design life and was not providing adequate fish passage for migratory fish coming from upstream. So having landed on that site, there's now three culverts that are being replaced, and the total value to the GNWT I understand is $9.5 million. Thank you
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that information. And, again, always happy to hear other people are paying money for things that we need.
I'm just looking at the highway reconstruction projects. And, like I said, great to hear they're at 100 percent. I note that the highway – Highway no. 3 is not on there. So is any work that would needed to be done in order to the sort of the approaches, etcetera, with regards to the bridge, would that come in under the bridge replacement costs, or will there be a separate piece at some point under highway reconstruction or highway costs? I guess I'm just trying to get a feel for is the Frank Channel bridge amount that was given to us by the federal government the allin cost, or will we see some accommodation costs on the highway that we need to take care of ourselves? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am looking at the document the tabled document. I do actually have an amount. So I'm not sure what has gone wrong. I do have $2.5 million for 20242025 showing here for the Highway 3, and specifically contemplating the fact that there would be some sections that would require strengthening in order to service the potential here. So or to service that highway in light of what is going to be happening with the bridge. So, yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would be remiss if we were talking about bridges and I didn't bring up the Great Bear River bridge. It has, I have to say, would have been a disappointment for me to not see this project advance at all, really, in the four years considering I had actually tried to be part of the team to build it in 2018 or 2017. So knowing the money has been sitting around for that long, it's quite concerning to me that we are not advancing that. And I guess just to kind of get a little bit of a plug in for anybody listening that may want to sit in the 20th, to me I can't stress an infrastructure project that's more needed than the Mackenzie Valley Highway. If I could go back now and this'll make my colleague from Frame Lake happy, if I could go back now I would scrap the other two infrastructure projects and have focused ourselves only on Mackenzie Valley Highway. I have noticed that over the last four years or note the just absolute inability for those regions to move forward without having a proper accessible route for their supplies, for their building materials. Having tried to execute projects in Tulita, in Norman Wells, in places where I only had limited access to equipment, it was very, very difficult, costly, and quite frankly, not even necessary often because by the time you would do the work, you couldn't do enough of it to really have any impact. So that's kind of more just a comment that I wanted to make.
But could the Minister please give us an update, are we actually go to see anything happen I'm very struggling with the word planning that's in there, and that makes me think that this is just going to be yet another round of consultants' reports that go nowhere. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, it certainly has been a long road coming. That is the wrong choice of words there. But it is still in planning. But staying in planning is important, Madam Chair. Sometimes these projects, as we've seen, advance too quickly without adequate planning and then wind up getting bogged down at the environmental assessment stage or in the geotechnical stage or whatnot. So it is my hope that that won't yet continue to happen here.
As I understand it, there were some challenges in terms of determining what type of contracting and what kind of a final routing there might be here. And it is unfortunate that it has gotten to that point. We are we did need to be to identify also parcels of land in an area where there are different ownerships over the parcels of land. If that is resolved and settled, then the next step is to actually get ready to build, and, of course, now the estimates that were in place at one time are several years old and very much predating all of the inflation that we are now all labouring under.
So, again, having the planning budget here, if the land issues have been resolved and some decisions within the communities are resolved as to where the placement of the bridge might go and how the contracting might take place, then the planning dollars here can bring about a new estimate and a higher estimate and figure out exactly what this is going to cost. It's the entirety of the Mackenzie Valley highway is I mean, we're into a very large number, and this bridge will be a very large part of it. And we're going to have to get a new estimate because what we have right now isn't accurate. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
