Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week the Ministers had some meetings with the Tulita leadership, and one specific topic that they were consistently on with the Ministers was the extension of the Mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley into the Sahtu region.
I want to ask the Minister, in regards to discussions with the Tulita leadership and this government here and the Sahtu region, could the Minister update us on the progress to build an all-season highway from Wrigley into the Sahtu?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time what we have completed is a proposal. We recognize that this is something that’s been in the works for many, many years. This year, prior to March 31st, we as a government, with the Premier and Minister responsible for infrastructure, Minister McLeod, were able to put together an initial proposal that we forwarded to the federal government. We have received a response. The federal government is looking for some more detail, some more technical detail, maybe closer, better estimates on what the actual costs could be. So we’ve received that letter and we are now working on preparing a response to that.
We are also in the process of completing an environmental assessment on the road between Wrigley and Norman Wells. The initial environmental assessment took it all the way to the Dempster, but now we’re focused in on the road from Wrigley to Norman Wells. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the update from the Minister. My constituents have duly noted the importance of the Mackenzie Valley Highway coming into the Sahtu. They want to know what’s been done. They’ve been having their meetings and have been making suggestions to the Minister. They want to know what’s been done to keep the momentum going with the Mackenzie Valley Highway so that they can start the construction on this road.
Mr. Speaker, to date, the GNWT has spent $128 million on that section of road; we’re referring to a road up the Mackenzie Valley. Slowly we’ve continued to work on that. We’ve put quite a few of the bridges in. We’re continuing to put bridges in which not only will work well for the future all-season road but also works well for extending the length in which the winter road will remain open. Plus, like I indicated, a proposal to the federal government on the national infrastructure program.
With that, we will be providing some information to the federal government, but for the most part, we’re waiting for their blessing in order to proceed any further. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the leadership and the people in the Sahtu sort of have an idea as to the progress to get full support to move in major steps on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I want to ask the Minister if he’s committed to working with the Sahtu leadership in regard to seeking funding from other partnerships in place to start building the important highway as soon as possible. I know they talked about some of the work that could happen, so the leadership is looking for this government and this Minister to look at some possibilities that could be there that without even further investigating, so we need to look into that.
Can the Minister commit to looking into further areas that we can start to do some work in that area?
During our meeting with the leadership when we were meeting on the Mackenzie Valley road, the leadership had indicated to us that they were going to provide a proposal to us, a proposal that will be presented to the federal government and other departments in the federal government so that they can provide some funding through various avenues. One of the things that the leadership was very focused on was to try to access some quarries and that they wanted to build some of the road using some access money from the federal government and some money from the various other agencies and departments in order to begin and ensure that some of the contractors continue working.
One of the things they really wanted to do was something similar to what happened with the Inuvik-Tuk highway, was to try to get an access road to a gravel source near Norman Wells and one near Tulita. We talked about that with them.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, the leadership certainly, again, wanted to show its appreciation to Premier McLeod and the Cabinet Ministers for making themselves available to talk about some of these important issues.
The Inuvik region companies have a big role in the design and the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway and local residents and businesses are benefiting a lot from the construction.
Does the Minister support a similar approach for the Mackenzie Valley Highway to make sure that local companies and residents benefit from the future construction of this Mackenzie Valley Highway?
The Inuvik-Tuk highway is a design build highway. We are heavily involved in working with the joint venture up there, the EGT Northwind and in the construction of that highway. We think it’s a good approach. It’s a good approach for the Inuvik-Tuk highway. We would look at all of our procurement avenues when we build any major infrastructure like this.
At this time it would be unwise, I think, to say that we would go and negotiate a contract on that section of highway. We recognize that that highway will be running through two different regions. About 100 kilometres will be through the Deh Cho and about 233 kilometres will be running through the Sahtu. At this point, our priority is focused in on getting financing together and working with the federal government to pull the finances together, and the procurement of that will occur once the money is in place.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
