The politics of the day is going to, I guess, as the Minister put it, determine how we fund the second portion of the all-weather road up the Mackenzie Valley. I would hope that I’m still in government by then and that we would have some discussion on that.
I’ve noted that in 1958 the Mackenzie Valley Highway was talked about. The portion of Tuk was also talked about at that time and more recently, in
2011. I do want to say that this money that we are giving them is something that certainly would support them to begin putting that road together, and good for them. They worked hard and long in that region. People have supported them. They did their lobbying and they did what they had to do to get this project off the ground. I think that for us Assembly Members who are around this table here, we need to reward the hard work and we need to know that there is a great North that needs to be built infrastructure-wise.
I’ve done some research on the infrastructure in the Northwest Territories with Transportation, the highway infrastructure from 2003 to 2013-14, and I looked at the sections of roads that we’ve put a lot of money into: Highways No. 1, 3, 4, the bridges and culverts. We put close to $200 million in that infrastructure. I have no issue with us building outside of this area. We need to look beyond that and I have no issue of supporting this $5 million. I know it’s going to certainly help with many other issues that they talk about so, once we look at it from the Sahtu, that we can get some support.
As the Minister noted, there is oil and gas happening in the Sahtu. International companies don’t sign a cheque for $700 million for nothing, especially if they know there’s something there. The Minister of ITI and I had some discussions with the oil companies, and all they can say it’s encouraging results and the results are very, very, very good, so good that Husky is putting in a $40 million $45 million all-weather road. That tells us something, that the play is happening. We may be a little slow waking up to it, but it’s happening. It’s over $100 million this year and last year it was close to $100 million spent. We know that we’re ready.
I also see in the paper that the highway is going into an environmental assessment. With this portion of the road, we certainly have a lot of questions. However, the key factor for me was the federal government putting in $200 million into this portion of the road that makes it okay. We have a couple of supporters here. That was the key for me to determine on this road here and I’m hoping that the department along with the partners are going to come to a conclusion that this is what we need to build it on.
The Minister talked about our roads into the Sahtu, of course, that we’re going to have another partner that might be interested, which is the oil companies. Of course, again he’s right, that the politics of the day would determine what kind of partnerships we’re going to form. But from ourselves in the Sahtu, we want to support the people up in Nunakput and the Inuvik area and reward them with the hard work they have done, and hopefully they would give us a hand.
With the federal government coming through, that it makes it easier for me to sleep at night now that the
funding is going to be there. I think my only question was with the Minister on the formula of the funding. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.