Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to have to talk about Highway No. 7 in my question. I notice that the Department of ITI just recently released preliminary tourism reports about how well the parks have done this year. I was wondering if the Minister of Transportation has some preliminary numbers for tourists that travelled down Highway No. 7 and toward the Blackstone Park. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the exact figures with me, but I’d be more than happy to provide those to the Member when I do get them. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I just wanted to make the point that it was exceptionally dry this year and the highway was in good shape. I’m pretty sure that the tourism numbers are up on Highway No. 7. I just want to make the point that with continued effort and working on Highway No. 7 with reconstruction, we can continue to have a good highway system with Highway No. 7.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he can give me those tourism numbers as well as a commitment about some kind of strategy to advise tourists about Highway No. 7. Thank you.
I thank the Member for bringing up Highway No. 7 again today and I also thank him for earlier this summer the trip we had between Liard and Simpson on Highway No. 7. Certainly, it was a dry year and all indications are that travel on that road by tourists was up. Again, I’ve committed to get the member some figures on the numbers and I will do that.
But certainly, we have to ensure that there’s a long-term plan for Highway No. 7 and I believe that there is. We need to look at some capital dollars going forward for the maintenance and rehabilitation of that road and I’ve mentioned it before in the House. It’s in the magnitude of $250 million. That is what would be required to totally rehabilitate the road. Obviously, we don’t have $250 million today, but what we can do is come up with a plan to maintain and rehabilitate what we can over the next 10 years or so and we plan on doing that. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The Minister spoke about a long-term strategy. I’d certainly like to see any of that preliminary work that he has, if he has any. Thank you.
Again, I will provide the detail to the Member, but we also recently signed an MOU with Canadian Zinc and the Prairie Creek Mine on how industry and the government can work together on improvements to Highway No. 7 and the Nahanni access road, and that’s certainly something we also look forward to completing as well. I think that’s an important step forward, too, as we realize some resource development and some jobs and some opportunities in the Deh Cho and the Nahendeh riding. So we’ve got some things in front of that that look very, very good and we intend to keep moving forward with Highway No. 7, its maintenance, its rehabilitation and the future of that road. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think part of the strategy, of course, is to include Highway No. 7 in the Tourism Strategy, if the Minister can also work toward that. Mahsi.
It is there, it has been there in the past with the Deh Cho Connection, the Deh Cho Trail. Certainly, it is part of our highway system here in the Northwest Territories. We have some beautiful parks located on there and some beautiful communities as well. So, certainly, that is part of the Tourism Strategy as we move forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
