Madam Chair, it is my pleasure today to present for your consideration the Department of Transportation's proposed main estimates for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
The core of the Department of Transportation's mandate is to operate and maintain the territorial public transportation system. Our transportation system consists of five ferry crossing services, 27 community airports, roughly 2,000 kilometres of all-weather highway, and 1,500 kilometres of seasonal winter roads. The largest part of the department's proposed main estimates for 2004-2005, some $53.5 million, is committed to the ongoing, day-to-day costs of operating the territorial transportation system. The department's budget proposal for 2004-05, excluding amortization expenses, includes a modest increase of about $250,000, or one-half of one percent, over the main estimates of 2003-04. The increase is driven mainly by the government's obligations arising in the third year of its collective agreement with the Union of Northern Workers.
It is important that I bring to the committee's attention that while the department has held its operating budget relatively constant, the demands on the territorial transportation system have steadily grown. The Northwest Territories has been fortunate to benefit from the tremendous growth in its resource industries; diamonds and oil and gas in particular. These positive and welcome economic developments, however, have generated more and more traffic that the transportation system must carry. Over the past decade, the traffic on the highway system as increased year by year at an annual rate of 3.3 percent. The department's greatest challenge has been to accommodate the consistent growth in traffic within its budgeted appropriation.
Over and above routine maintenance, like any physical asset, our system of transportation infrastructure wears out with regular use and requires lifecycle replacement and reconstruction to keep it in a serviceable condition. At the same time, the lifecycle reconstruction of the infrastructure also makes the most sensible and timely opportunity to improve or enhance the infrastructure. The Department of Transportation's capital acquisition plan aims at providing for the infrastructure's reconstruction and improvement. For the 2004-05 fiscal year, the department's capital acquisition plan has a budget of $47.7 million. Most significant, almost half the capital acquisition budget for 2004-05 consists of contributions from Infrastructure Canada's strategic infrastructure fund and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
The Department of Transportation has been particularly successful in obtaining commitments from Infrastructure Canada's strategic infrastructure fund. Taken altogether, the contributions from Infrastructure Canada amount to $65 million over six fiscal years, of which $14.1 million is included in these main estimates for 2004-05. With the approval of the federal government, this funding has been allocated to five projects on the highway system. With these important sources of federal funding, the Department of Transportation continues to keep our transportation infrastructure in good operating condition for the public's use.
For the past 15 years, the Department of Transportation has been working steadily on the reconstruction of the 526-kilometre corridor of highways 1 and 3 that runs from the Alberta border to Enterprise, Fort Providence and past Rae-Edzo to Yellowknife. Between Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife, there are just 30 kilometres of the original roadbed left to reconstruct. In 2004-05 the department plans to award two contracts that will complete the reconstruction of these last 30 kilometres by the autumn of 2005.
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Since the year 2000, the department has been working on extending the effective operating season of the Mackenzie Valley winter road system by the installation of permanent bridges over stream crossings. With federal contributions, the work will continue in 2004-05 completing 12 bridges between Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope. In 2004-05, the proposed budget for the Mackenzie Valley winter road bridges program is $8.4 million.
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The largest river that the Mackenzie Valley winter road system crosses is the Bear River at Tulita. In 2004-05, the budget for the Mackenzie Valley bridges program includes $100,000 to begin the engineering and design work for a permanent bridge across the Bear River.
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The department plans to continue the reconstruction of the Dempster Highway in 2004-05 with a proposed budget of $5 million. This year's work is expected to complete the reconstruction of Highway No. 8 from Fort McPherson to Tsiigehtchic and start reconstruction on the section between the Yukon border and Fort McPherson.
On Highway No. 4, the department has budgeted $3 million to reconstruct the Ingraham Trail...
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...between the Yellowknife River Bridge and the Detah access road. This section of Highway No. 4 carries a high volume of traffic all year round that with heavier resource traffic in recent years becomes even more critical during the winter months.
In 2004-05 the Department of Transportation will continue its partnership with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation to build a bridge over the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. The people in Fort Providence, Rae-Edzo, Yellowknife and Detah, who live on this side of the river, look forward to the day of reliable, year-round, uninterrupted highway access that the bridge will bring.
The Department of Transportation has two successful programs dedicated to improving local transportation infrastructure in our communities. Under the community local access road program, the Department of Transportation makes contributions to communities to assist in the building of roads to points of local interest. With a small budget of $580,000, the department expects to support access road projects in communities such as Aklavik, Lutselk'e, Gameti, Paulatuk, Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk, Wha Ti, Wekweti and others.
The community marine program similarly finances the installation of local boat launch and docking facilities in communities. Again, with a small budget of $300,000 in 2004-05, the department plans to build a boat launch and dock in Fort Smith, a fixed dock in Wekweti and floating docks at Nahanni Butte and Paulatuk.
In summary, these are the highlights of the Department of Transportation's main estimates for 2004-05. The proposed budget provides for the continued safe and reliable operation of the territorial transportation system on which the people and the economy of the Northwest Territories depends so much.
The transportation system is essential to our continued economic success and there is a clear need for the transportation system to meet the demands of a growing economy. We are pleased with the department's success in securing new sources of funding from the federal government. I trust that the Members are in agreement that the development of our transportation system must keep pace with the expansion of our resource-based economy. Thank you.
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