Today I’d like to speak about a project that was worked on a couple of years ago in 2003 coming forward to 2008-2009. It was the Main Street Chipseal Program which was requested by the Special Committee on Rural and Remote Communities back in the 14th Assembly. Out of
that, one of the recommendations was to deal with dust control in all of our smaller communities and improve the quality of life, the health of our residents and, more importantly, finding a way to deal with an ongoing problem such as drainage, road conditions, and doing an overall assessment of those communities.
Part of that process included some 12 communities including Kakisa, Hay River Reserve, Fort Providence, Enterprise, Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Wrigley, Fort Liard, Rae-Edzo, Tuktoyaktuk, Tulita, Fort Good Hope, Fort Resolution, and Dettah. Yet today we still have communities asking for this government’s help with regard to this program.
I was totally alarmed to find out that there is $6 million going to be spent in regard to one of the larger centres to chipseal that community’s roads under the Building Canada Fund. Yet there’s no mention of community dust control to deal with chipseal programs for our rural and remote communities. I think it’s essential that this government seriously looks at reinstating this program for the benefit of all the smaller communities in the Northwest Territories and enhancing the program so that all communities can have a quality of life by way of improving the infrastructure in our communities, including moving the dust from our streets in the summer months and ensuring the health and well-being of our elders and people with chronic disease.
I think it’s important that this government reinstate this program. We do have the resources through the Building Canada Fund and there’s no reason that work has to take any time. The Department of Transportation has done a lot of the legwork. They’ve done a lot of the assessments. They’ve looked at the drainage systems in our communities. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation at the appropriate time, or even the Premier, if it is possible for this government to seriously look at implementing that program to benefit our small communities.