I don't want to go on with this issue but I think the Minister should take some time to review the situation because I don't see the difference and I don't think most of the people in the Northwest Territories would see the difference if we are talking between the Detah road and the reserve road and the road in Fort Rae and there are probably others. I do want to use up my time to talk about a couple other things.
For the record, I think we have been really working hard the last couple of years and the department has been able to do quite a bit of work in the area of community access roads and I think it is something that has been overlooked in the years prior. I know recently in the communities that I represent, that they are quite happy with the situation, however, there is still a concern that the funding is very tight and there has to be some new dollars identified. The reserve road is a project that is going to require about $4 million dollars and, at $200,000 to $300,000 every year, it's going to be a considerable length of time before we can see that road paved or at least straightened. It's a dangerous road. We've demonstrated and proved and brought up the stats to show that and I was really happy this past year, we did some work and we would be happy to do a lot more so I wanted to go on record stating that new dollars or any new dollars that we see from within maybe should be targetted to this initiative.
I also wanted to raise the issue of stockpiles and the gravel requirements in the different areas and different regions across the North. In a lot of cases, other departments have to depend on highways to provide that crush material, and we certainly have been in some situations where we've had a lack of gravel for a number of years and we've had to use alternate material that is really not up to par and causes all kinds of problems on the roads and on the streets.
One area that I did raise in another committee that is quite a concern to me is in the area of training. I think in my opinion that Transportation is certainly in an excellent position to provide training in some of our communities. In a lot of cases, we don't have a lot of construction that is actually community based. The government projects and the government initiatives are in some cases the only game in town. That is the only activity that is going on. It's the only stable workforce that we can count on to provide some training. We've been quite fortunate in the community of Fort Providence where we've seen a number of engineers and a number of captains trained on the Merv Hardie as a result of the government and the company working together but I still think we can do more.
I know the department has created a couple of apprenticeships, apprenticeship positions but however, they are immediately located in the regional centers. That really doesn't do us any good in the smaller communities. I think every department has to try to target some positions that they can take in the communities. We have already been told that we will never see a big jail or a big hospital in smaller communities but maybe we can alleviate some of the problems with some full-time jobs, especially training positions if we can locate them there. With highways and with transportation having the shops and with trained expertise there, we should be able to at least have apprenticeships.
I've also been contacted by a number of people that feel that Transportation should also try to do more. There is very little in terms of training for their own staff and it's very difficult to get upgraded. Other departments have utilized programs like school or community government to upgrade their people in their communities and bring them to a different level. We don't see a whole lot of that going on in the communities with the Transportation staff and you kind of come into the game at one level and you stay fairly stable. I think there has to be more initiative in that area.
One final thing I want to bring up, Mr. Chairman, is I've noticed especially this year and it is something that is ongoing, when the ferry shuts down we have a lot of people that were intending to travel through and then are sometimes caught on one side of the river, especially when the ferry shuts down in the fall. It's not so much a problem on the south side because we have notifications, we have signs at Enterprise, but we don't have signs on the north side of the river. I think we should have one at least when you are leaving Yellowknife. You would not have to drive all the way to the community because sometimes notice is given while people are en route. Maybe even one at Rae. I am not sure where the best place would be to situate a sign, but I think we need that kind of notification to the travelling public. I would encourage the Minister to look at that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.