Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Premier questions regarding the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that some time ago the Government of the Northwest Territories put a proposal before the federal government regarding the Norman Wells oilfield proposal in terms of possibly looking at some funding options to see if this process could be looked at and see if the federal government could entertain this proposal to construct the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The opportunity that I took was with the Prime Minister, looking at the devolution and resource revenue sharing talks, where that was as the cap that was identified, and put it forward to the Prime Minister that we come up with an infrastructure deal that could see us in partnership building a project like the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Premier tell me in terms of how this proposal was discussed amongst his colleagues in terms of this proposal that’s continually worthwhile or another avenue that we could look at?
We have kept the discussion going at the political level with engagement from the Prime Minister’s office, a commitment to have further discussions around an infrastructure discussion. There has been no formal proposal put in place, but we continue to engage, for example, with the Minister of Transportation and other Ministers around this idea and looking at how we can work with the federal government through the different pots of funding to even come up with, for example, what they have announced up in the Inuvik-Tuk portion of highway work that can be done. Thank you.
Can the Premier tell me if there is going to be any types of formal discussions in terms of constructing the Mackenzie Valley Highway, similar to questions similar to what the MLA for Kam Lake has talked about? Can we see some solid commitments from the feds or can we see that there is a possibility of even looking at the beginning of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the construction part of it?
There has been quite a number of Assemblies that have shown their support for the Mackenzie Valley Highway, this Assembly being one of them. There have been a number of reports that include infrastructure, highways. I think there are a number of reports out there that have been put forward to the federal government around connections, highways, transportation, airports, ferries, that type of scenario. What we’ve been engaged in was to look at how we can keep a devolution/revenue sharing deal on the table tied to future investments in key infrastructure in the Northwest Territories like the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The departments have been continually engaged on trying to find any avenue they can to keep this project moving and back. I would say the Inuvik and Tuk portion that was announced by Minister Strahl, I believe, there has been additional work to look at the project development phase and we continue to pursue any avenue along those lines. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will continue to press the Premier and his Cabinet colleagues to make this a top priority, as I think they are well aware of, in terms of the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway and how many people down the Mackenzie Valley will be very appreciative of this support here. Can the Premier tell me, if we build a Mackenzie Valley Highway, what would the revenue be to be paid to open up the Mackenzie Valley for resource development exploration and extraction?
Mr. Speaker, the economic analysis of a Mackenzie Valley Highway is something that the Department of Transportation has undertaken and I believe they are prepared to set some time aside with Members to go over that work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
