Thank you. I appreciate the Member's questions. If I can address the ice road issue in terms of cost, this is the first year of actually completing the ice road between Whale Cove and Rankin Inlet. That road is still active and we haven't completed the cost estimates and the value of it. But I want to assure the Member, I've said from the very beginning that that's what we intend to do.
The obvious extension, if this thing was to be successful and if it can be cost-effective -- and the only thing we have to compare it to, of course, is the ice roads that are built in the west -- would be the possibility of an extension into Chesterfield Inlet, Arviat and that immediate area in terms of ice roads. One, it's part of the linkages that are a natural part of the community. From a dollars and cents perspective, we're looking at an insignificant amount of money.
I want to say that this ice road is very much an experimental idea. We're trying to, as I say, evaluate whether it's cost-effective. Personally speaking, I hope it turns out that way because I do think with some of the experiences we've had that we can expand it into other communities.
With respect to the access roads -- and I believe this issue was raised previously by the honourable Member, with respect to Duke of York -- we do have a policy in place now which was approved by the Legislative Assembly. That's the access road policy. This access road policy came about primarily by the political lobbying that was done a year ago by Mr. Ningark and some others. In the need for some kind of four-wheel ATV vehicle-type of roads into areas as Mr. Arvaluk suggests, whether it's a tourist area, a fishing area or areas that local people and visitors could access. The access road policy currently has a budget of about $650,000, next year it has a budget of $750,000, subject to approval and the following year of $1 million, again, subject to approval.
The way we have been approaching the access road with the municipality is to say to them if you can give a little, we can give a little. In other words, discussions are under way right now with the Baker Lake hamlet, we have the Whitehills and in Arviat we have Maguse. I know these two well because we have been in discussions the last six or seven months. We are saying if you are prepared to come forward with some contribution in kind, let's say it is the utilization of equipment, perhaps we can put a program in place that would provide the municipality with some of the wages necessary and maybe some of the operational costs of the equipment necessary, over a three or four year period, to build those types of access roads. It is a question of sitting down with the municipality, working out an arrangement between what they are prepared to contribute and what resources we have and seeing if we can fund access roads of this type over a three and four year period. The policy is in place. There are limited dollars, but I would be only too happy to instruct the department to initiate discussions in Coral Harbour with respect to this. Departmental people will be in Coral Harbour soon anyway on the issue of the strategic planning money with respect to the wharf and the snafu road. So perhaps we could add that to the agenda and see if we can work out an arrangement with the municipality.