Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions on the construction of the Trout Lake Airport project. As the MLA, I was very proud of the work that I’d done with my colleagues to get the airport project on the books in 2008. Construction started in 2009 and here we are five years later, it’s not scheduled for completion until next year. That’s a six-year project. Yellowknife gets a new bypass road that’s completed within the year. The government wants to build the Inuvik-Tuk highway, almost $300 million, in four years. Why is my airport taking six years?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The work on the embankment of the Trout Lake Airport is now about 95 percent complete, but we did run into some issues with the material. The material that was being used when the construction originally started on the Trout Lake Airport was not of the quality and quantity that was acceptable to the department, so we had to deal with that issue. Now that we’ve had some delays because Trout Lake is not on an all-season road, there are certain times when we can get certain equipment into the community. But the delays are there. We’ve had weather issues, as well, but the bottom line is that that project will be finished in the fall of this year.
That’s kind of a weak answer. The people, we want a win-win situation where we’ve got a nice capital project, the community wins, the government wins, but building for five years… That is just completely unacceptable. Working with the community and the community meetings, there’s a management team in the Department of Transportation that continually delays these.
I’d like to ask the Minister, can he do an assessment of the management team and see why this project is taking so long? Colville Lake doesn’t have an all-season road. Their airport was built in two years, so was Deline. I’d like some answers from this Minister. Thank you.
If the material to construct the airport is good material then the issue of them being off an all-season road is not an issue. However, if the material was not proper material then that becomes an issue, and that’s all I was trying to indicate.
I will go back to the department and look at the management team. We recognize that the Department of Transportation continues to work with the Sambaa K’e Development Corporation and also the contractor. Our organization, the contractor and the local development are working together to try to get this job done as quickly as possible, and the intention is to finish that airport this year.
I look forward to the Minister’s internal assessment, because that’s what the community is telling me, that there’s a bottleneck there every time they want to do something. In fact, this gravel haul should have been done two years ago, but it was the department that kept stalling and putting it off and then finally the weather got too warm that they couldn’t do it. I’d like to ask the Minister, can he assess the whole project and why is it taking so long?
I will commit to reviewing the entire project, review that entire project with our senior management team from Yellowknife, and we will report back to the Member in detail as to where the delays occurred in the construction of the Trout Lake Airport.
Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister had said it was going to be completed this year, I would like him to meet with the community and myself and say that’s what is going to happen, because the reports I saw, it won’t be completely completed until next year.
Yes, the indication I have from the department is it would be completed in 2014. I would be pleased to meet with the community to advise them of that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
