Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement today, I talked about a road to Nechalacho, the Avalon mine. I would like to ask the Minister if he agrees that an all-season road to any potential mine increases investor comfort. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have spoken in this House many times, the lack of infrastructure is holding back some of the economic opportunities for the Northwest Territories. This particular road that the Member is talking about is an interesting concept, but this government has identified three strategic corridors in our mandate, and that's what we continue to keep our priorities on.
On the viability of continuing to put a road in to the diamond mines, that is not something I am opposed to, but I think that this road might have more benefits to a complete road all the way up the Slave Geological at this time, although I am not in here prepared to talk against a road into the Slave Geological, but it is my opinion that the road into the Thor Lake would be something that is viable. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister would take the step of consulting with the company to see what their feeling is on an all-season road that will run down from Ingraham Trail to Thor Lake.
I meet with industry stakeholders all the time, and I am sure everyone that I even met at roundup would love to have a road to their project. The reality on the ground is this government has a mandate commitment, as I have said in my previous statement, and we will continue to focus on those. If Avalon would like to pursue a road, I am sure that they would like to have a conversation with myself and Indigenous governments that would be affected in that region, and I could sit down and have a conversation with them, but where that project would go from there would be dependent on a number of things.
So the Minister is telling me that, if Avalon or the company that would be building the mine at Thor Lake would like to discuss possibility of having an all-season road built to their mine site, then they should come to the Minister to have that discussion and also that they should be prepared to do consultation with the YK Dene? Is that correct?
Yes. As I have said, I would be willing to have a discussion with any mining proponent in the Northwest Territories that is looking to do investments in the NWT. What we can clearly do is have an open dialogue, conversation, about what they are thinking. If they are proposing a road in that region, we can clearly lay out what would need to take place to do that. I am not saying that this government or that future governments would support building a road strictly to one mine. That is not what I am saying. I am just saying we are open to having a conversation with them and clearly lay out a path that they would need to take.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reason I am not asking the Minister of ITI questions, I am asking the Minister of Infrastructure, is because I am interested in the road. I think the road would have benefits to Thor Lake. We are not building a road to Whati to accommodate NICO mines, but we are building a road to Whati because we are building a road to Whati, and what happens from there would be beneficial to the mining operation over there. This is the same type of concept I am talking about. Build a road to the shore by Thor Lake that will benefit the community of Lutselk'e and other people who wish to travel from that area. It's a fairly strategic point when you are trying to travel on the Great Slave Lake. So my question, I guess, is: will the Minister have discussions maybe with the communities, like first consultation with the YK Dene and maybe further consultation with Lutselk'e to see if it would be viable? I am sure, like the Minister said, the road would be very acceptable to the mining company, but why bother having that discussion if no one agrees with it? Would the Minister of Infrastructure agree to have a discussion with the YK Dene and Lutselk'e on the viability of a road from Ingraham Trail to Thor Lake? Thank you.
As the Member clearly laid out a scenario that could possibly work, it is something very similar to the Whati road, where we did a joint proposal or joint exploratory work with the Tlicho government on the road to Whati. That ended up resulting in a road that is going to get built here in the next couple of years. If that is something that the YK Denes communities and Lutselk'e want to consider, I would strongly suggest that they request a meeting, and we can sit down and have those discussions, how we can figure out if there is an opportunity there that we can maybe work into our strategy going forward.
As I have said in this House, we have three strategic transportation corridors that are reflected in the mandate of this government. There is the Department of Infrastructure's transportation strategy, Connecting Us. I believe that has been clearly laid out for the next 20 years, but that is a discussion that we could have with the communities. Thank you.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
