Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the beginning of session, I asked questions of the Minister of Transportation with regard to Highway No. 8. I know we don’t have funds available in this current budget to address the upgrades to the highway. I know one of the things that I was told is we’re waiting on a response from the federal government with regard to the Building Canada Fund. Since then, we’ve received confirmation, so I’d like to ask the Minister if there will be funding available to continue upgrades to the Dempster Highway, or Highway No. 8. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Recently, we’ve received confirmation for the Building Canada Fund. We’ve had discussions internally about the allocation between DOT and Municipal and Community Affairs and funding the communities. So we have had most of those discussions. Right now, we’ve taken the money that was promised to us through the Building Canada Fund and we are now going to be discussing that to determine how we’re going to be able to match that money with the GNWT dollars in order to leverage the full amount that’s available. Thank you.
Does that mean we will have work for the highway this summer? I know a lot of people depend on that work. We employ over 40 people during the summer. Will that be in place for this current summer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The plan moving forward and the portion of the plan that we had submitted to the federal government that was approved was for the reconstruction of most of the highway infrastructure across the territory. The Dempster is in there. As soon as we’re able to match the dollars, if we’re able to find matching dollars for the Dempster in 2014-15, then we will be starting year one of the Building Canada Plan work on the Dempster and other highways this year. Thank you.
That sounds promising, so I will have further questions during the spring session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Hawkins.
