Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When Mr. Ramsay and I went on a winter road trip, we drove to Fort Good Hope and to Fort Simpson. On our way from Fort Good Hope to Fort Simpson we stopped, and there was a bridge there at Oscar Creek. I want to ask the Minister what his plans are from his department having that huge bridge, I think it’s over a million dollars of infrastructure, sitting there. What are his plans with his department to get it fixed and used?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I enjoyed the Member’s song earlier. It was a good song. Good trip with the Member down the Mackenzie Valley. We did see a number of things. One of them was the bridge at Oscar Creek. We took a number of pictures of that bridge. There was some engineering that went a bit awry back about 10 years ago on that bridge. When I got back in the office on Monday, I had an opportunity to talk to the department about the Oscar Creek Bridge and what was happening with that. There are plans to use the bridge on Oscar Creek. It might not be in the location that it’s in currently, but there are plans to realign the all-weather road with that bridge. Plans are in the works and I’ve impressed upon the department that that should happen sooner rather than later.
It was a long bumpy road and I want to ask the Minister, with all the work going on in the Sahtu, and next year Good Hope is going to get busy on that section, I want to ask the Minister if he could put pressure on his colleagues in the department to get that bridge. The bridge is there because of the engineering that wasn’t done properly. Could the Minister press his department to get that bridge? There’s over a million dollars in infrastructure sitting there. They might as well just bring that Oscar Creek Bridge and put it right in front of the Legislative Assembly because that’s all it’s doing is just sitting there. It’s an embarrassment. Taxpayers are paying for this and I want to ask the department if they could speed up putting that bridge into operation.
That happened about 10 years ago with the location of putting the bridge in its current location. It does need to be moved. It’s a sizable piece of infrastructure that would require probably looking at relocation and realigning on more of the all-weather road alignment of the highway. It is going to take a capital investment of probably somewhere in the magnitude of $2 million to $3 million, I would imagine, to move the bridge and put it where it needs to be. It is in the works and I can assure the Member, having seen it for myself, that bridge will be moved as soon as we can possibly move it.
The people in the Sahtu are very happy, even over the last couple of days. The people in Tulita are very happy that the Minister has taken the trip and driven down. The Minister knows the conditions that we have to put up with day in and day out in the Sahtu.
I want to ask the Minister, amongst the other bridges, we looked at Bob’s Canyon and that’s a disaster waiting to happen. The number of trucks that we passed along Strawberry Creek. Will these bridges be fixed so that we can have some safety next year on our winter roads?
We had the opportunity to stop into Wrigley. We talked with the band manager. The Member and I both had the opportunity to drive through Bob’s Canyon and Strawberry Creek. Pehdzeh Ki Contractors, the folks in Wrigley are doing work on both of those areas. Not all of the work is going to be concluded this year. We will continue to work on some of that next season, but certainly from a safety perspective, Bob’s Canyon, when we did get back to Yellowknife on Monday I instructed the department to address the concern with the ruts in the road at Bob’s Canyon and they had somebody get on that right away. That was addressed immediately.
The work will get done there. We have highlighted both Bob’s Canyon and Strawberry Creek as areas of high priority from a safety perspective, and we are working toward the completion of those projects.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were a couple of spots that we went on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. There’s one called Washboard Lane and Pothole Valley. I want to ask the Minister, is the Arctic paving program going to increase the dollars for the oil companies, because those number, maybe 1,500 or 1,600 trucks are pounding the roads in the Mackenzie Valley. If the Minister can look at some funding to increase the Arctic paving program in the Mackenzie Valley, that will certainly help our people and probably will save a lot of lives.
The Member and I probably saw about 60 trucks heading north, just on the Saturday alone, driving from Norman Wells to Wrigley. We need to continue working with industry. This past winter season we’ve had an investment of $1.2 million, through partnerships with industry, for enhancements on the winter road. Next season we anticipate that work going a little bit further north towards Fort Good Hope. Our anticipation is that industry will want to continue to work with the Government of the Northwest Territories on ways to enhance the winter road. That includes applying water to the road to build up the base so it lasts longer and is more durable. All indications are that industry will want to continue to be our partner in this effort in advance of us having an all-weather road down the Mackenzie Valley.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
