Mr. Speaker, in this House and throughout the territory, we've been talking about the need for a Mackenzie Valley Highway for decades. The Mackenzie Valley Highway has been in the planning stages since 1960 when the federal government was trying to advance the roads to resource programs. And to put this in perspective, my mother was one; status Indians were given the right to vote on July 1st, 1960; January 16th, 1960, Gordie Howe became the leading goal scorer in the NHL. That's how long ago.
The current proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway is just one part of what's needed for transportation in the NWT. The current proposed Mackenzie Valley highway is 321 kilometres from Wrigley to Norman Wells. The estimated cost of this project to get the highway corrected to Norman Wells was about $700 million in the last time it was made public.
In 2018, the government started building the road from the north side down from Norman Wells to Wrigley, a 14kilometre long access road. So, Mr. Speaker, we still have 307 kilometres remaining to connect Norman Wells to Wrigley. We have the Inuvik to Tuk Highway that opened in 2017, but there's no allseason road connecting Inuvik to Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells.
Mr. Speaker, we know roads bring prosperity to people and communities, and we know that residents in the Beaufort Delta rely on the Dempster Highway to gain access to the south. And this is largely a Yukon road, which is poorly and inadequately maintained. It also provides the exit route for residents and business to go spend their money outside the territory. Residents in the Beaufort Delta want access to the southern part of the NWT. People in the Delta are ready and willing to build a road connecting the Dempster Highway outside of Inuvik with a road to at least Fort Good Hope where they can connect with the winter road in the winter months.
Mr. Speaker, we have a major critical piece of infrastructure that can reduce the cost of living, increase investment and resource development, increase opportunities for tourism, trade, businesses from the north to the south of this territory, and yet GNWT continues to advance this critical transportation corridor in a piecemeal.
Mr. Speaker, what is the plan to connect the northern portion of the NWT to the southern NWT? Why isn't the GNWT taking lessons learned from the Inuvik to Tuk Highway and extend this road further south? Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted
Where are the community plans to support the work to advance this road to connect and open up the communities? It is the mandate of the 19th Assembly to advance development of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The government states it will do that through establishing collaborative partnerships with Indigenous governments. I will have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Members' statements. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
