Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Transportation. It is in regards to my Member’s statement and the importance of gravel resources for communities to develop public infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, as a government we have several access programs in regards to the Community Access Program and access road construction program. We have the Tuk access road program. We now have the road in regards to the Dettah upgrade access program. We have the Yellowknife bypass road program. We have tons of programs out there, but it just doesn’t seem like you are able to assist communities to find access to the gravel sources, especially to realize the importance of gravel sources to communities to develop public infrastructure and also about programs and services on behalf of this government.
I know in regards to the Aklavik situation, they have received some money through Building Canada. There are other pots of money out there. We just heard about a P3 fund that is out there. I would like to ask the Minister exactly what can his department do to facilitate with the community of Aklavik to find a way to resolve the problem of getting a permanent access road to the gravel source especially, some 20 kilometres from the community?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member raised a very healthy list of projects that we are working on in the Northwest Territories with communities to find either improvement through the Access Roads Program to enhance road systems or, in some cases, to try and find a way to lessen the costs to have gravel into the communities.
We don’t, as a department, have a gravel source program per se. We have really tried to reach out and be creative in a number of situations including the Tuk source 177 program where we were able to access the Building Canada Fund and work with some communities such as Aklavik to do a study that identified the cost, the route and alignment of road that is going to be required to access gravel for that community. There are still other communities that don’t have a readily available supply of gravel. We would like to see if we could do more on that front. We would like to see more discussion through the rural remote community program. We are also exploring to see where we can go for next steps.
The study for Aklavik, something that has been in the works, he mentioned in his statement, for as long as he has been here. Well, that is quite a few terms, Mr. Speaker. I am proud to say the government of the 16th Assembly has finally picked it up and been able to move forward and wants to continue to do so. We are looking to taking the next step, which is the project development report and we have identified it is going to cost a little over $1 million. We are working all avenues to see if we can find those dollars. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for that answer, but I think the challenge is still there. He mentioned other communities. I know there are other communities that are having that problem, in regards to Tulita and Colville Lake. We are talking about building airports and other public infrastructure. One thing that we are really finding when you go through the capital plan process is solid waste sites for communities. In a lot of cases, the communities have to expand outward, but again you have to have gravel to build these solid waste sites to identify where those infrastructure are going to be built, but, more importantly, skid a road to those sites to develop those areas. I would just like to ask the Minister in regards to the importance of this issue, working with your other ministerial colleagues, can you look at a program to ensure that it is part and parcel of the government programs and services by way of a community access road to gravel source program or whatever you want to name it? Is that something that the government is looking at to ensure that we have a program that’s universal right across the Territories, so all communities can have access to that? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we, as the Department of Transportation and also through my responsibilities as Minister of Public Works, are looking at ways that we can try to accommodate communities with our need to gravel sources. The responsibility, of course, for gravel supply for municipal projects is under the municipality. That’s been transferred over through the New Deal. The money for capital has also been transferred over, so it would be very difficult to see that clawed back so that we can start a new program in that sense. I am very keen to see what the options are. I’m also very keen to move forward and explore what the federal government has to offer.
I am convinced that we can put something together with the community of Aklavik. The report was only completed a few short months ago. We were not even able to consider it as part of this government’s capital plan, because it was already submitted. So we have to find ways to do that. There are some programs out there. There are some other options that we’d like to explore. We want to meet with the community and come forward with a proposal to submit to the appropriate department or the appropriate program. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the findings of the report the Minister mentions is that just on having a permanent access road versus doing a winter gravel haul where you have to build a winter road, an ice road, whatever, is somewhere in the range of 35 to 40 percent savings to government and to the public cost of building capital in the communities. If we can look at those types of savings and look at it in the long term, how much money can we save by simply having access to gravel sources as an illustration of how we, as government, could be doing things better?
So again, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister in regard to the capital cost of gravel, we had a flood a number of years ago in Aklavik where, basically, we had to bring gravel in from Inuvik by barge and it was over a million dollar expenditure. Yet, that could almost look at a major gravel stockpile for Aklavik which will last a couple of years. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, have you looked at the economics in regard to long-term savings of building this road and, more importantly, the long-term savings to government when we’re looking at 35 to 40 percent savings on capital costs because of having direct access to gravel sources?
Mr. Speaker, I think all parties involved, all stakeholders, including the municipalities, have recognized that it’s still cheaper to do an analysis of what the gravel requirements per community are for that year and provide a stockpile versus to try to find 20 to 30 million dollars to build a road. It’s still very difficult to do so. I think there is merit to look at the long term and try to work with the communities, and I’ve committed to do so. I’d like to see that move forward, but at this point there is no program and there is no budget that allows us to tap into for gravel source access roads. I’d like to see that developed. I’d like to have more discussion with the Rural and Remote Communities committee and see where that ends up. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there’s a way, there’s a will and, hopefully, there’s a lot of will on that side of the House, because, definitely, we have to find a solution to this problem. So, again, I’d like to ask the Minister to keep me informed as we proceed forward and try to find solutions to a major challenge for rural and remote communities. I’d like to ask the Minister, when was he expecting to have something going forward, especially in regard to the next phase in regard to the gravel program so that we can, hopefully, see a road built to that gravel source within the next short time? Thank you.
There is certainly no shortage of will on this side, and I’m sure if I did let it slip, the Member would be quick to remind me. The Aklavik road right now, a project description report for that project is something that we want to see move forward. We want to be able to contact the community quickly. There are programs out there like the Community Adjustment Fund that we feel we can tap into. We’d like to package that up into a proposal with a business case and take it to the next steps. We’d like to move that forward as quickly as possible and we’d be very pleased to include the Member in all steps that we take on this project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
