Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a few questions today for the Minister of Transportation to seek some clarity around the territorial government and the federal government's commitment to the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Mr. Speaker, we know that the Mackenzie Valley Highway is an important project identified in our mandate. We know that it is a major infrastructure project, and we're all aware that there is an application into the federal government to the tune of some $700 million of which we would be responsible for about 25 per cent of that.
Mr. Speaker, we know that the federal government has also made an announcement recently that they are putting their consideration for the Mackenzie Valley Highway on the back burner. So I'm just wondering, can the Minister let us know if there has been any additional feedback from the federal government, communication from the federal government with regard to what their commitment is to the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Is it a go or a no go? How long are we expected to wait for certainty? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government had notified us in July that they were proposing this application, but what they are doing is they were going through their planning activities and figuring out how they're going to move forward with their infrastructure plan and phase 2 moving forward, and we anticipate that they will probably be doing something within the next budget cycle. We are optimistic that this project is still alive and well from all the conversations we've had from the Minister of Infrastructure meeting with Minister Sohi and myself meeting with Minister Garneau, this project is well on the radar of the federal government and we continue to push it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That'll be my questions for today. The following questions were in case there was a long-term understanding that we didn't know where the federal government was going with their commitment to the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I was going to ask what we were going to do with our resources and would we have a willingness to reallocate those resources to other priority projects, but it seems so far that this is going to remain a priority, to some degree, from the federal government, and I'll keep checking with the Department of Transportation as we move forward.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
