Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Transportation.
I don’t know how it’s going to relate, but it was certainly good news to finally sign off on the Building Canada Fund this afternoon. Some of my questions, of course, like with many of my colleagues, are on exactly how it’s going to roll out and how it’s going to play out. More specifically, say there is a project like chip sealing the remainder of Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 7. How would that fit in the scheduling and planning of allocating those funds?
Mr. Speaker, we have a lead Minister that’s dealing with the Building Canada Fund on the infrastructure side, that being Minister McLeod, so I’d ask that that be redirected to Minister Michael McLeod. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have a two-phase process that’s identified for the initiatives under the Building Canada plan. The first phase was signed off today, and that includes the amount of money we’d be receiving through this fund and also a commitment for ongoing investment in the gas tax program. The next step will be to sign off on the financial agreement, and we expect that to start taking place. We have identified the areas that the investments will be required in, and those are the areas of transportation and municipal governments or communities.
On the municipal side we’ve started the discussion with the NWT Association of Communities to see how we can flow the dollars to the communities. It hasn’t been decided whether it will be by project or on a formula. We have to also consult with the federal government on whether these processes will be allowable.
From the transportation side the Department of Transportation will be packaging up a comprehensive list of what projects may be eligible, and that will include everything that’s in the capital plan, everything that has been brought forward as part of the strategies, Corridors for Canada, and other projects that have been identified through our own strategic plan with the 16th Assembly. That will be brought forward and shared with the Members so that we can have discussion on it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that’s certainly something that our communities will be very anxious to get to work on and help government with their priorities.
Just with respect to some of the commitments that were in Corridors for Canada, I believe the Deh Cho Connection was listed in there. In having that on the long-term priorities, it sounds like they have to redo another set of priorities working with the federal government. Can the Minister detail how that’s going to play out? Is it a 15-year capital plan, or is it an annual capital plan? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in the discussions that we had earlier on with committees, it started out that there was some desire to see a long-term investment plan put together that would cover all the seven years. That’s something that’s up for consideration. However, as the Member knows, that would have to be approved on an annual basis. We’re trying to put enough information together so that we can have a good discussion on it and identify the different areas that need investments. I should also point out that there was a motion passed in this House for a couple of projects to be considered.
This whole agreement is based on investment from the federal government. It also requires investment from the Territorial government of 25 per cent. With any projects that are not on the capital plan or are coming from communities or are in one of the strategies, we’d have to have enough comfort that we can identify the 25 per cent. So those things will have to be considered and allowed for. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, of course exciting news with this announcement. Just in terms of the general public, when can we see some impacts, whether it’s municipal or transportation projects being delivered, as a result of this announcement and expenditure? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I think we’re starting to see some of that already. Today the federal government announced that they’d like to move forward with the Kakisa Bridge, something that’s in our interim appropriation, so we’re quite excited about that. I’m already getting the sense that we’re campaigning for projects in the different ridings.
Mr. Speaker, we fully expect to have and be able to have some discussion with my cabinet colleagues and also the Regular Members. Sometime in mid-March for sure, if we’re going to do anything this year, we’ll have to have them approve it in the main. That will be sometime in the third week of March. So we’ll really need to get going on these initiatives and start putting things together. Thank you.
Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I was just trying to grasp the sense, as well, of how this is going to play out with our recent announcements of cutbacks, and now we’re looking at some reinvestment. Would this be classified as a reinvestment?
Mr. Speaker, of course, our capital investment is based on some of our surplus and our ability to borrow. This actually helps us in a way, that any projects that are on our capital list or on our needs are now being invested in from our side with 25-cent dollars. So it will help us. It should free up some dollars for reallocation and maybe loosen up the tight squeeze we’re in. Thank you.
