Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would like to thank the Members for bringing this motion forward. I think it’s very timely that we have a discussion on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. It’s been in the media for some time now. It’s a road that’s been talked about for many years, since the 1950s; Diefenbaker’s Road to Resources program.
The road is roughly 940 kilometres long. From Wrigley to the Dempster is 800 kilometres and the Inuvik to Tuk portion is 140 kilometres making a total of 940 kilometres. For many years now the department has worked towards putting bridges on some of the crossings in the Mackenzie Valley Road system. That really helps us when we look at extending our winter road season and improves the safety and things of that nature for the road.
We have looked at many options to try to attract additional funding to construct this road. We’ve looked at partnership opportunities with the federal government. We’ve also been talking to other groups. We’ve been quite fortunate that the federal government has highlighted several new programs over the last few years, including a P3 infrastructure fund that was quite exciting to see come forward. We have yet to see how the details are going to allow it to flow and move forward.
This has been a subject of discussion on many different tables, including the devolution table, resource revenue sharing discussions, and it’s been something that we’ve brought forward as an economic stimulus for the recent federal budget. We’ve been trying to do a lot of work towards improving our business case. We’ve undertaken to do some more detailed engineering and environmental scoping and baseline work required for some of the pre-permitting and environmental assessment phases for some of the projects that we’re working towards in the Building Canada plan. Also, through the Managing This Land Initiative we’ve more recently hired a consultant to do some of the environmental stimulus.
We have recognized that in our Northern Connections document we’ve highlighted the many needs and challenges that were faced with and the land-based transportation is something that we’ve flagged as being very limited. Only one-third of the land area in the Northwest Territories is within 100 kilometres of an all-weather road and only 19 percent of the residents have year-round access. Sixty-five percent of the NWT residents, including Yellowknife, do not have highway access for all year or there are a couple months in there that they don’t have access for seasonal transition because of the ferry service. Thirteen percent of our population has only access during the winter roads and there’s 3 percent of our population that still doesn’t have any land transportation access at all. Those are very concerning statistics.
We all recognize that the Mackenzie Valley road at this time, considering the economic downturn, would be of great benefit to all of us. It would create jobs, a lot of employment that we need in our communities. Certainly it would help us address the high cost of living in our communities. We’ve all heard from many Members in this House over the last while about the high cost and the continual increase in buying groceries and fuel supplies and things of that nature. We certainly would see an increased interest in oil and gas exploration and other kinds of exploration in different parts of the Territories. This would open up a portion of the North. Benefits, because of increased opportunities in other areas such as tourism, have to be recognized.
We have to recognize that we can’t build a road without the ability to maintain it. So when we talk about investment in building a road, we also have to look at the investment in allowing us and assisting us to maintain this road. That would create a lot of jobs. We already know and recognize the benefits of our existing roads and the different contracts we have with the communities, and also our own staff that have stable, long-term employment as a result.
Up to now, as I’ve indicated, we’ve taken an incremental approach that’s allowing us to move forward, but, in my opinion, not fast enough. We have tried to redesign our maintenance schedules. We’ve tried to redesign our construction seasons and methods. We’ve also tried to open up the door so that people that are in the industries, for example oil and gas, can invest and work with us as partners to extend seasons.
This is an issue that’s been highlighted, as indicated in this Assembly through this motion. It’s been highlighted in the opening address of the 16th Assembly. The 2007 Pan-Territorial Transportation Blueprint and Northern Connections has flagged it as a priority. The strategic committees that we’ve formed within our government have recognized it as a priority. So this motion today, along with the motion that was brought forward by the Dene Nation, certainly has to identify it. It has to send that signal to the federal government that this is a priority, we are supporting it, and we’d like to see it brought forward.