Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Transportation department is going to be a very
important department in the next five to 10 years from now. I see that there’s an 8.7 percent increase from 2011-2012 Main Estimates and I’m hoping that the increase will be higher and larger in the coming years.
I do want to take this time here to let the Transportation Minister know that we really need to get specific down to some of the highway strategies for the upcoming years. We have put some money aside already for the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Specifically, the federal government’s contribution to the Tuk-Inuvik highway. That highway is on the books, there’s commitment, and that’s a fact.
The other fact is that the Minister of Transportation and this afternoon the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment talked about the oil and gas potential activity in the Northwest Territories. He talked about the potential that may happen in the Sahtu. We need to look at our infrastructure priorities and nailing down some specific infrastructure priorities in transportation in the Sahtu. That will be our next priority. I think that needs to be discussed.
Ottawa needs to know that we have our priorities set here in infrastructure and that we would like to see that part of the highway that’s been planned through the PDR and the other good work being a priority of this government and this Transportation Minister possibly looking at a road from Norman Wells south. Start working to be supported by industry or government. We need to see that this is going to take some effort from this department and put this into a new highway or from Wrigley south. Either way, we need to get the portion of that highway system on the go and up and running.
That is sort of the hard statement I’m making here. We’re here for three years. We have limited time here. We need to get these on the books. Mr. Miltenberger said there’s a surplus of $74 million and that the GNWT has plans for the surplus in this year’s and next year’s budget. They need to start focusing on expanding roads, schools, airports and other public service facilities. I’d like to see the government’s priorities for infrastructure. He’s talking about starting focusing on expanding roads. For me, expanding roads means building new roads. The one, Tuk-Inuvik, that’s already on the books. We can start with other priorities. Ottawa needs to know what our other priorities are. What infrastructure priorities. We don’t have the means to take out the resources. We’re lacking, surely lacking the infrastructure and support from this government to support this Northwest Territories economy. We need roads and marine services support. We need to look at that.
On the Northwest Territories/Yukon border there is a project going up there called the Selwyn-Chihong Resources. They’re putting permits in place to extract the lead-zinc. It’s one of the world’s largest
deposits of lead-zinc. Mind you, there’s about 85 to 90 percent of the mine on the Yukon border, but they’re using the Northwest Territories section to move the lead-zinc out down to the southern markets. They’re putting in the plan to build an all-weather road on the Northwest Territories side. They are downsizing because of the world market, just like the Mackenzie Gas Project is downsizing because of the natural gas prices. APG has downsized their office and one company has pulled out of the project and Imperial Oil has downsized their project. Selwyn Resources is going to use that section of the road. It’s going to hook to the North Canol Road going to the Yukon. We need to know if this government is going to put a few graders or a CAT or a truck to maintain that small section of the road. In our books it’s still our road. As much as you say no, no, this and that, it’s still on our books. In our books it’s still our road. Unless you take it right off and say it’s no longer our road, then I believe you. Right now you’re minimizing it by telling me it’s not going to be used much. Once Selwyn puts that road in and they start taking out that lead-zinc, that’s going to be a busy road.
I think you have a lot of surplus. You’ve got a lot of old dump trucks. I’ve seen them in some of your garages. Some of the old vehicles are still being used by them. You have good mechanics because they keep running and working well. You have a good staff there, Mr. Minister. They work hard. Kudos to them.
I’m looking at putting some of that old surplus there. I keep getting lots of reasons why we aren’t able or can’t and just won’t do it. We need to support that. It is a private road. Selwyn has a private road but they are going to go onto our road and there are going to be a lot of tourists coming through there to get to the Canol. That’s the Promised Land. I’d like him to see the work in that area.
The resources in the North are very rich. Yellowknife is very rich, very fortunate. They have a lot of things going for them. Very good for them. The department is doing some pretty good work. I support the Minister and staff. Get some good contractors doing the winter road. They do a good job on those roads.
We have good Aboriginal contractors who have negotiated good contracts with the department to build capacity in our regions. The principles of the negotiated contract are working. I want to support that with our contractors. I have seen where contractors have come from outside of the Sahtu that try to get into the Sahtu with low prices that just about drove our companies to their graves. Our boys stay there. Our women stay there. We pay the taxes, we pay the fuel and we live there. Thank God that negotiated contracts keep our companies alive. I want to say to the Minister we support – the other side is making me laugh. I want to say to the
Minister that the principles of the negotiated contract have worked for us. That’s what I wanted to say. I have seen it in my nine years. I want to say, continue working with the contractors in the Sahtu and other communities.
I have other questions for the Minister as we go page by page.