Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has indicated in his opening comments that the Highway Investment Strategy in his budget was developed in response to the number of requests from different Members of this House. When I was made aware that there was a strategy being developed for highways, I felt very confident that some of the communities that I represent would be included as part of the strategy.
After hearing the Minister indicate during question period that his only methodology for selecting roads for repair or for upgrade was based on safety and visibility, I was very convinced that the communities of Kakisa and Hay River Reserve would be receiving upgrades as these roads are narrow, winding and dusty and they have never had very significant upgrades over the last number of years.
I was very surprised when this budget and strategy came out that there were no funds indicated for the Deh Cho, but there were funds there for the paving of certain roads. There were funds for the Ingraham Trail, a road that does not lead to any specific community, and I would not consider taking priority over communities that had a safety factor.
This leaves me questioning the Minister because in his comments over the last year, he has stated several positions that I do not agree with, or he has had a change of heart. Initially, he indicated that Highway No. 3 would not be escalated, even though there were a number of requests put forward. He indicated that he could not escalate this project because the North did not have the capacity to have contractors take on contracts of this nature and this size, so they had to keep it at the level of investment that was indicated previously.
Now he is saying that there is a capacity in the North to do this and we can escalate it. That it is a complete change from Hansard of not even a year ago. I wonder how accurate the information that he is using to determine the priorities for this strategy is.
In his statement on July 7th he indicated, when he referenced the Hay River access road, that there was only two injuries, two accidents, no fatalities. That is not true. Over the last ten years, there have been 15 accidents on that road. I wonder if the Minister had taken that into consideration. This is information that his own department provided to me.
When we look at the other statistics, there is a disclaimer on all of the information the department puts out, stating that only 46 percent of the information collected is usable. That really does not give me confidence that we are using the information collected to the best of our ability because we are not getting the total picture. I hear the bureaucrats from his department making comments about the highway traffic levels being low. His own statistics show that the traffic has increased over the last while. I really have a lot of questions regarding the accuracy of his information.
With regard to the introduction of tolls, I have a lot of questions. I have been working with our research department to see if there is indeed a clawback clause and whether it applies to tolls.
We have also heard the Minister of Finance being questioned. I think everybody is fairly confident that over the next three years until a new formula financing agreement is renegotiated, we will not see a clawback. However, there is no reassurance and he did not give us one, and the research that I have looked at does not indicate that it applies or does not apply. I have a number of questions.
When it comes down to a long-term investment and taking on a $100 million debt, it really bothers me because the revenues from the introduction of a toll can only be spent in the area of existing projects, as far as I understand. If that is the case, then it certainly leaves us out in the Deh Cho because there is no investment indicated in the strategy, and there is no room for new investment.
In the community of Fort Providence, we have been working quite hard to research the whole aspect of designing and building a bridge. This does not even take that into consideration, nor does it take into consideration the road to resources which, we were told, does not exist, but there is a road for the Great Slave Geological Province indicated. Is that the same thing or is that two different projects? I do not know.
My main concern though in this whole thing with the introduction of tolls, and we have already seen the discussion with the hotel tax, that we are shifting from what we initially started out as trying to renegotiate and opening the door for discussion for the federal government and the submission for the non-renewable strategy. I thought it was something I could live with. Now we have gone away from that and we are looking at introducing new taxes and tolls and that will increase the cost of living in the Territories. As it stands right now, I do not think I can support that initiative unless there are some major changes. I would like to see us maintain pressure on the federal government and open up those discussions rather than the introduction of new taxes and tolls.
So my question is regarding the accuracy of his information, where is he getting his information from? Information that I am looking at from his department certainly does not reflect what he has based his priorities on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.