Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some comments on Transportation. My constituency is fortunate to have highways, and it is very important for us to have them.have highways, and it is very important for us to have them. We also have airports, but I will speak on the highways first. Presently, we have all-weather highways connecting us into BC and to Enterprise. My main concern on the highways is that I would like to see the highway completed into Wrigley. I am also very interested in having this government pursue completing the highway into Fort Norman, Norman Wells and eventually all the way down the Mackenzie Valley.
I know that there is highway going into the Delta from the Yukon, but I think if a highway is eventually built down the valley it will greatly benefit the whole valley, especially the communities of Fort Norman, Norman Wells, Fort Franklin and, course, Wrigley as well. They would greatly benefit from such an infrastructure because it would open up the country. The tourists would like to come into our area and that would be good for the tourist industry. It would be an infrastructure that would generate economic development by utilizing the resources that are in the valley. My main concern is mainly a long-range kind of thing that I would like to see eventually.
I know that people in the past have raised this issue many times. I want to put on record that I am very supportive of such a highway being built. I heard from the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Economic Development when I mentioned that, and their answer was, "That highway along the valley is included with a highway to the Kitikmeotarea and also the Keewatin area." Realistically, the most realistic approach to it is to complete that highway down the valley first, and that is the point that I want to make.
I would like to see some initiative from the government to eventually complete this highway, but we do it a little bit at a time, and the little bit I am talking about is completing that bridge at Willowlake River. It was planned, from what I understand, for some time, and the people in Wrigley told me as soon as I got elected that that bridge was supposed to be going in this year. I am told it was bumped back by one year and that there are some funds in there to do developmental work on it. It is a positive thing that it is going to happen, because they have been planning to put a bridge in, and it is like inching along up the valley. At least it is initiative, but I would like to see a bigger approach than that. I know there is money in the budget this year to do some developmental work at the Willowlake River, but it would be very positive for us if it was more than what it is, in there.
For the highway north of Wrigley to Fort Norman, years ago when the highway was put into my region it was built through a Hire North project of the federal government, and the local people worked and built the roads there. The right-of-way clearing, all the big trees, have been cleared all the way to Fort Norman from Wrigley already. I have travelled on that winter road, and it is obvious that some money was spent to clear the right of way many years ago. Of course, it was so long ago that willows have grown on this right-of-way and it needs to be cleared again, but all the bigger trees have been cut down, so there has been a start in that direction.
My point is that there was some money spent on the beginning of the highway from Wrigley to Fort Norman already, because the right of way has already been cleared, and it is just a matter of doing some more work.
I have got a letter here from 1985. I think that was the last time I could find out that there were some figures on how much it would cost at that time to build a highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells, and the figure for different sized roads -- I think the widest one is 10.4 meters wide, and it is $156,172,000. The second widest is 8,5 meters wide. It is 18. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and $145,569,000. For 7.3 meters wide, it is $136,912,000. These are the figures I have been able to find, but they are 1985figures and since that time, with inflation, it has probably jumped quite a bit.
