Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation and getting back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the realignment of Highway No. 4, the Ingraham Trail, due to the remediation work ongoing at Giant Mine. It was three years ago that the department came forward with some possible options on the realignment of that road. We don’t have to look too far to see the potential that is out there, when roads are constructed, to allow for opportunities, business opportunities. If you look at the Yellowknives Dene, we could provide opportunities for the Yellowknives Dene and the City of Yellowknife by properly addressing this realignment.
I’d like to ask the Minister what has happened. The road was supposed to be constructed, the realignment was supposed to be conducted in the summer of 2008. I’m just wondering, it’s two years later and we haven’t heard anything. Maybe an update on where that project’s at.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the consideration for realignment was introduced, I think, in 2007 and we’ve been working towards moving that forward. Of course, we can only move as fast as the process will allow us. Our plans now are to move forward over these next couple of months to do further consultation. We still plan to have the construction of realignment commencing the fall of 2011. We’d like to see the traffic starting to flow sometime in 2012. There is still some discussion that needs to take place and the timing and opportunity has to be worked out with the Giant Mine remediation team.
The realignment was to take place as a result of the freezing in situ of the arsenic trioxide storage vaults underground at Giant Mine. To my knowledge, that is going to happen here sooner rather than later. The switch might actually be turned on on one of those storage vaults being frozen in place. I’m just wondering if the Minister can explain what the roadblocks are in getting the realignment done. Is it DOT? Is it the federal government? Where is the snag in trying to get this addressed?
I don’t believe there’s a snag in the process. This is part of due course. We are working towards reducing the options to one that will be accepted by all parties. There is, right now, a variance of opinion, of course, on the three routes. The Member has stated his arguments for his preference, however, the responses that we’re getting are fairly even. We’re getting about 30 percent on every option in front of us. There are more meetings that need to be conducted and we need to start doing the engineering and work on the route that’s going to be selected and start construction in due course, which is next fall.
If there’s varying degrees of interest in each of those three options, I’d like the Minister to explain to me how a decision is going to be arrived at, which of those corridors is chosen for the realignment and what process the department has for coming back to Members of the House with that decision. It’s been three years since consultation was conducted on that. I’m just wondering if we’re talking about a new round of consultation on the realignment or not.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain the process to consult with the Members in this House. The Member is quite aware of that. We have been consulting and talking to stakeholders and different groups over the last number of years. We plan to continue doing that and do further discussion. We’d like to narrow down the options to one and start engineering and environmental reviews that need to be determined in some of the outcomes. That’s going to be done in short order. I just have to ask the Member to be a little bit patient, I guess. He’s anxious to get going, but the work is moving forward and we still plan to continue that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got lots of patience; I’ve been waiting three years for this to happen. Maybe the Minister could give us a firm timeline on when a decision is going to be reached on what that realignment is going to be so people can line up the opportunities, if there are any opportunities that come out of it. I’m talking about the City of Yellowknife and the Yellowknives Dene, for example.
We have been talking with the Yellowknives Dene since 2007 and I’ve indicated to the Member that the schedule is for the construction to start in 2011 and open to traffic in 2012, with the final surface completion in 2013.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
