Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. Earlier today I spoke about support for roads within our mandate, and we know that recently we made a joint announcement between the territorial government and the federal government with regard to the allseason road, the Tlicho allseason road. My question to the Minister is: can the Minister provide us, for public record, an update on what the allin cost is going to be for that road, and maybe what the government's responsibility will be for their portion and how we'll finance that portion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The announcement on January 11th from the federal government was a conditional funding for this project from P3 Canada. As this project moves forward, the proposed or the estimated cost is $175 million for this road. However, the procurement for this project is undertaken through a competitive process, and the overall anticipated cost is not being released until the closing of that tender. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. That leads me, I suppose, into the next question of asking, then: what are the next steps and when can we expect, knowing what's expected for the tender process and the RFQ and RFP process? If the Minister could elaborate on that and, in particular, as it relates to potential schedule or timelines that affect that.
First of all, the project is currently undergoing an environmental assessment by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. That was submitted or it was referred to an assessment in, if I remember correctly, end of July of 2016.
As we move forward and it works through that process, the next part of it was that we actually release the request for proposal to get assistance in developing the procurement documents for this project. Moving on from there, the next step will be going out to an RFQ process to see to get qualified bidders who can handle this project, the building of it and the financing of it. From there, we'll move to an RFP process and, from there, hopefully into construction. So I hope that answers the Member's question.
Again, thank you to the Minister for his reply. Mr. Speaker, often when we have to build projects which such technical expertise, we end up having to rely on southern contractors to do this work. Can the Minister tell us what we can expect in terms of assurance for Northern companies' involvement and, maybe even more particularly, the Tlicho companies' involvement in this project?
When we get to the RFQ and the RFP processes, we will be sure we do our due diligence to incorporate as much northern content as possible. It would be my best understanding, I think, that whoever the proponent would be moving forward on this project is going to have some Tlicho involvement. I can't see that not happening. Who knows what's going to happen in the tendering process, but we will do our due diligence to make sure that all Northerners get to benefit from this procurement on this project.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
