Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister for Transportation spoke about the Mackenzie Valley Highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells, and he provided, you know, the importance of this road being granted resources and traditional lands that gives opportunity for recreation and tourism. It will create jobs, general training opportunities, and heavy equipment opportunities for training. So can the Minister please -- or yourself, Mr. Speaker -- when can we expect to see funding for other access roads projects, or is it focused entirely on the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the $700 million? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, as I said in my Member's statement yesterday, has been suspended by the federal government while they consider new infrastructure programs. So we're waiting to hear on the details on the infrastructure programs, hopefully when the federal budget comes out here in the next month or so, but there's a significant amount of work that is still going on with the highway. Our environmental assessment has started for the Wrigley to Norman Wells' section. Community consultations have been undertaken by the Review Board and the terms of reference for a developer's assessment report.
So additional work is currently on hold due to funds, and we're also working with ENR on this right now to prepare plans on how to manage caribou and how can that occur together when we build a highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess the big challenge is that this whole project from the Deh Cho from Wrigley up for 100 kilometres would have a huge impact not just on my riding but in the Member from the other side's riding and the Member from Hay River North's riding, as well. My colleague from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh and my Member from Deh Cho at least have the potential for these great things. So I understand that the Canyon Creek access road is the first step for the Sahtu segment, and it's important to get the gravel there. Is the department doing any work of similar access roads in the Deh Cho from Wrigley moving north?
First of all, the Canyon Creek access road that we just announced was initiated by the Sahtu region. This was brought forward a long time ago by the people of Sahtu and the Aboriginal governments. They spend a significant amount of time and energy on this project to advance it. It speaks to the benefits like the Member just stated of jobs and employment opportunities and training. Federal opportunities came along at the right time for this project and allowed this project to move forward, and it has.
If the Member's community of Wrigley and the Deh Cho wanted to have an interest in promoting a project similar to this in their region, they would have to identify something similar to their project and they would have to contribute to the long-term objective of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, meaning we would like it to probably line up significantly with the project so it wouldn't take away from the project. If they were to do something like that we would certainly sit down with them to look at opportunities and how we would support it and seek opportunities for federal funding for such a project.
I thank the Minister for his answer. That kind of led into my other question I was going to ask anyway, but I'll, you know, modify it a little bit here. So when can I expect the Minister to come work with us and maybe bring the Minister of Lands to come along and meet with these communities and do a community regional tour? So when can we look at this? Is it going to be sooner or later?
Like I said, first of all, it would have to be something driven by the community and the region. They would have to all work together to say this is a project that they would all be supportive of and want to bring forward to the Government of the Northwest Territories. That would be the first step. So as long as we have consensus on stuff, we could sit down and look at the proposal. As far as doing a tour of the region, I think we've been asked twice already and due to timing I couldn't make it to the region, but at some point we're going to have to get out there and just talk to the region, especially the Deh Cho and all the communities that the Member has.
Like I said, any new project like this would still require a new source of funding, and that would be something we would have to move onto, but the first step is to get regional support from the community and the region to bring this forward. The community of Wrigley was involved in the application of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, so they have a lot of knowledge and probably some paperwork on how that project was advanced, and that would be probably some supportive documents they would need to do, some type of project similar to Canyon Creek.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. Don’t get me wrong. I think it's very important, the work that this government has been able to for the Sahtu in that one section of the road. The completion of Mackenzie Valley Highway is important for the residents of Nahendeh and Sahtu, but the whole NWT. The environment or the economic opportunities it will bring by lowering the cost of living and bringing the needed opportunities for future development is there.
I'm pleased to see that the Canyon Creek access project, as I said again, it's happened. What else is being done by this government to ensure this advancement of the Mackenzie Valley Highway? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I've said, we've already submitted the proposal to the federal government. It is on hold right now based on what they're going to do with their infrastructure needs. Hopefully the federal government addresses this project and many other projects that we've submitted under infrastructure for this territorial government in the federal budget coming out in the next couple of weeks. We have done pretty much everything we can do to advance this project until we hear back from them.
Like I said, we're working with ENR on preparing plans for management of caribou, we have the environmental assessment to complete, but all that stuff is tied to funding and we are going to be dependent on the federal government to how we advance the Mackenzie Valley Highway as a project and as a complete package moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
