Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d first like to start by congratulating the Department of Transportation on winning the Silver Award from the Institute of Public Administrators of Canada for the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project. With that, I have a few questions on the project itself. I know a decision has been made formally approving the Inuvik-Tuk highway, which is the first step of the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his recognition of the award. We hope to be concluded with the EA process and get a report back on that early in 2013. Between that time and when session starts again in February-March, we hope to be able to get the cost estimates on the project so that we can better ascertain what the cost of the project is going to be. We expect to be able to come back before the House in the February-March sitting to formally make a decision on the Inuvik-Tuk highway. I look forward to doing that.
I’d like to ask the Minister when equipment will start moving and people will be working in the Beaufort-Delta region.
Processes like the EA take some time. I know the economy right now in the Beaufort-Delta isn’t what folks need it to be. We need jobs, we need opportunities there. I believe this project is going to help us deliver on growing the economy in the Beaufort-Delta. Should the project be approved in February-March, we will be able to hopefully move on a couple of sections that are shovel ready, both out of Inuvik and out of Tuk. Hopefully the project itself would commence construction in the fall of next year. That would be the fall of 2013.
My final question to the Minister is: What level of support is the Government of the Northwest Territories receiving from the federal government?
We’ve had a great deal of support from the federal government. It’s a project that the federal government believes has national significance. It’s going to lend itself to Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. It’s going to connect this country from coast to coast to coast. We certainly look forward to continuing to work with the federal government as the project moves forward.
We have today a commitment of $150 million from the federal government. Again, I think there are some moving parts here. We need to nail down what exactly the cost of the project is going to be, and like other projects that we’ve had here in the past, we need to complete the environmental assessment, get the report back, and then look to the federal government to continue to be the partner they’ve been thus far, and we’ll get a funding arrangement with the federal government and look forward to a continued partnership with the federal government on building this territory.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
