Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s talk about tourism in the Northwest Territories. More so, let’s talk about how the tourists travel to our smaller communities in the North.
Year round we have people from the South and all over the world attracted to the Northwest Territories, to the Mackenzie Delta and to the Beaufort communities. Some fly into Inuvik, but the majority of them drive the ever popular Dempster Highway. Yes, let’s talk about the Dempster Highway and the need for more funding to make this a safer highway.
I’d like the Minister to address why the lack of funding. Where did the funding go to finish off the widening that was promised? The widening project has obviously made a big change in how we see the Dempster. For one, it’s a lot safer. Wider roads mean easier to drive and allows for safe passing of oncoming traffic. You know the amount of vehicles that come up the highway hauling food, dry goods, freight, fuel, propane and now LNG, and the list goes on. We need to maintain this highway to ensure zero accidents.
Another thing, this is seasonal work of which our local people rely on to earn extra money to sustain living in our communities. My constituency is expecting work to continue this summer. Let’s make this work happen for them. Let’s reassure them that construction on the Dempster will continue. I ask the Minister again to take another look at the widening portion of the Dempster Highway and re-implement this back into this year’s plans.
Another thing is resurfacing. Our highway needs to be resurfaced from Fort McPherson to kilometre 173. Again, in order to reassure a safer highway, we need safer driving conditions.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
