Mr. Speaker, I would like to clarify the answer I gave during question period on Wednesday, November 8, 2000. The Member for North Slave had asked me, in my capacity as Minister responsible for Transportation, whether the department intended to build a winter road to Wekweti.
My answer did not clearly separate the important difference between the seasonal public winter roads built and maintained by the Department of Transportation and the short-term resupply road the Department of Public Works and Services uses to deliver government cargo to Wekweti more cost effectively by truck than aircraft.
The Department of Transportation's winter roads are built every year and kept open through the season for use by the general public. The Department of Public Works and Service's resupply road to Wekweti is built strictly for the delivery of freight, with no public commitment that it will remain passable for general traffic or kept open any longer than necessary for the delivery of the shipments involved.
The Department of Transportation has never opened a public winter road for general traffic to Wekweti and, at least in the immediate future, has no plans or budget to build one. A public winter road to Wekweti would be 215 kilometres long and cost an estimated $450,000 a year.
In the past, when there has been a winter road into the Colomac mine site, the Department of Public Works and Services found it cost-effective to build a temporary resupply road into Wekweti because it provides cheaper transportation for government cargo than an airlift. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.