Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is obviously some need for clarification there in how the changes came into effect in regard to which communities would be eligible for the chipsealing program. Up until this fall, the plan was to follow the motion that was put forward by the recommendation of Committee of the Whole, and it was to apply to the five major communities that were identified.
However, when we took the program to FMB, we then had to justify it within the criteria that is established in the capital planning process. We had to show what it is; whether it's a political wish, whether it's a people need, whether it's related to health in order to justify the expenditures and the program. We indicated to FMB that this was a people need, as well as health related, because it was the only form of dust control the department has now. That's because we have to phase out calcium chloride in the near future. At the present time, we fund some communities, or almost all communities in the Territories, small ones, with some calcium chloride funding. Whether they use it or not is up to them. We don't ask them to account for this expenditure. Some communities use it, some don't, for calcium chloride.
The results of that was that FMB said that it has to then apply to all those communities where we could possibly reach, either through the winter road as well as highways or even barging if necessary. But it would have to be in relation to Department of Transportation activities, otherwise we couldn't afford to do it. We initially put forward a figure of roughly $3 million to do those jobs. To stay within that figure over five years was going to be very, very challenging if we went and implemented a program without taking into consideration Transportation equipment and their activities.
Therefore, we came back. We had to take this all back to the drawing board with Transportation, and asked Transportation where their equipment would be and what activities they'd be undertaking. Tuk got into the picture because Transportation was undertaking a major crushing project in Tuk, which was related to resurfacing of the runway. This was already a program underway. As a matter of fact, I believe Tuk was the last of four communities that Transportation was resurfacing their runway. Then the crusher would move out of the Beaufort. This is Transportation's own crusher.
Because Transportation's crushing program was taking place, we then wanted to take advantage of the program and the crushing. I'm sure Members know that Tuk has no gravel. The closest crushable gravel is about a 60-mile haul, and that's what makes it very expensive. The type of crusher Transportation uses is not the normal type for highway crushing.
With those things in mind, we had to draw up a new schedule and Tuk was shown, when we passed out the early draft of the communities that we would be applying the program to the first year, it was shown as Tuk receiving approximately $600,000 for crushing and stock piling. I think there's some misunderstanding here that Tuk was going to get paving in the first year as well. There's no possibility Tuk would get paving at the same time as the crushing and stock piling, because Transportation doesn't have a chipsealer in Tuk. It would have to wait. As a matter of fact, on the sheet that we presented, Tuk was in the years 2006-2007, I believe, for chipsealing. That's the way it was laid out.
Even though the committee wrote to us and asked us to reconsider this, it was not possible for us to redo Tuk at a later date because once the crusher moves out of Tuk, the option to haul crush material into Tuk brings the price from up to $80 a metre. That would be from hauling from Inuvik because that's the only option we have. That's one of the major factors driving why Tuk was chosen the first year, and why we're doing the project in the first year in Tuk.
Mr. Chairman, I took a revised schedule to FMB for the crushing program just recently, and I believe it's available if the committee would like to see the rescheduling of the communities and which communities have already had chipsealing done. We have four communities now that have chipsealing; two of them under Transportation programs, one under their own initiative, and one as a pilot project for MACA. The one MACA did as a pilot project was while Transportation was chipsealing the road into Detah, we asked that they chipseal the main street into Detah as a pilot project because the program was already taking place there. I'm quite happy to say we managed to do it at a very reasonable rate of $12,500 -- something like that -- to chipseal that short stretch of street in Detah.
What we're now doing is working with the communities to see what they have to have in place in order to maintain the chipseal without damaging it through maintenance of roads. So we're working with the communities now to see what they have to do in order to maintain the chipseal.
For your information, Mr. Chairman, Fort Liard chipsealed their own road -- I believe it was somewhere around early fall, around Labour Day, something like that -- at their own cost, because there was a chipsealing program on the highway at that time. They took on the cost themselves and they chipsealed their own road.
Rae and the Hay River Reserve are chipsealed under Transportation programs, because they're considered part of the highway. So MACA doesn't have to make any expenditures in those communities at this time. We may have to respond in some form to Fort Liard requesting reimbursement now that the program is in place, but we can deal with that in future. I hope I clarified how we got Tuk into this picture, Mr. Chairman. But like I said, I have amended schedules if the committee wants to see them.