Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I spoke about repairs to Highway No. 6. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation why the repairs to at least the worst sections of Highway No. 6 are not being done when $1 million is set aside specifically for this work this summer.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. There was in the June budget $1 million budgeted for work on Highway No. 6. The work is ongoing. It’s a late start in our season, to have our budget approved in June. We have done the design assessment. We’re working on gravel sources, and we’ll continue to do so.
Mr. Speaker, in speaking with a former long term highway employee and contractor, I was told that it could take as little as three weeks to do the work and repairs, repairing the worst section of the highway once equipment is mobilized. I was wondering if the Minister could take the initiative to try to get the work started as soon as possible.
The Member is correct that work can commence very quickly once all the design, once the drainage, once all the surveys are done — gravel production, everything else is completed. In this case we still are doing the design and we have completed the majority of what we plan to do. We want to go into the community and share that information with the community that the Member represents and move forward. Providing everything is in order, we hope to have the work done by the end of November, Mr. Speaker.
A quick, final question. I was wondering if the Minister could commit to passing information on about the new schedule and scope of work for repairs to Highway No. 6 to me as soon as possible so I can pass the information on to my constituents.
Mr. Speaker, certainly, we can commit to doing that. We’ll share the information with the honourable Member and also give him the time and the dates that we plan to go into the community of Resolute and share that information with the community. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
