Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Finally a government document that references Highway No. 7. All kidding aside, Mr. Chairman, of course I have been using my favorite two words trying to get resolution over getting Highway No. 7 reconstructed and I know that it is very, very expensive. In the capital planning that we approved last fall, we are certainly making strides towards it and I just want to highlight it once again so we can keep paying attention to it. It is part of the Deh Cho Trail, the loop that goes from BC and all the way around to the Alberta border close to Hay River. It makes for great travelling for the tourists, knowing that they have good infrastructure that they can drive their very, very expensive motorhomes on and do the loop. They do inquire in Fort Simpson, one of our great tourism people, Mr. Ted Grant. People often can call him in the springtime when they want to journey up there and he does tell them up front, he tells them in the
springtime, don’t come up, the highway is very bad, it has collapsed in some places and it actually pains him to advise tourists not to come up that way. We are making strides towards it, a few places have collapsed and we have reconstructed that and it does make the case that, yes, we do have to continue our reconstruction and that is why I continue to press it as MLA for that region.
I guess I was trying to get some certainty, too, because we are all for the chipsealing of the section between the Fort Providence junction towards Fort Simpson and about 30 kilometres. The Members on this side of the House strongly supported that be done, be saved this fiscal year, it would last another year, I am afraid that we will be losing it. In fact, at the appropriate time the Minister can comment on that commitment and the commitment to save that piece of infrastructure there, because it is quite a pleasure for people from my riding and anybody driving through there, even though it is 30 kilometres, it is a nice little piece of road to drive on and look forward to more chipsealing. I think it’s from Checkpoint towards Jean Marie junction. I’m not sure if they plan to do it this year. I know that one section, about nine kilometres, has sat for a year already, so I am not too sure if the department is looking at chipsealing that this year. There is a further 10 kilometres that has been widened in preparation for chipseal. So I’m not too sure what the plans for that are. I know that the plans are there to widen the highway quite a bit; I’m not sure if they plan to chipseal that this year as well.
The other issue, when it comes to transportation, of course, is the Trout Lake Airport. At the beginning of the sitting of this House, I was quite frustrated and the community of Trout Lake is quite frustrated, too, that it has taken so long to build our new runway there. It is the pride and joy of the community and they try to be involved as much as possible and get as much economic benefit about it. They saw it as a huge opportunity to continue training their residents and they have done lots of training over the year, in fact, last term I did go there and they had trained an all-female crew using heavy equipment. So they look to those kinds of projects to develop their skills and to continue on with their skills.
It saddens me every time I hear that the project has been shut down, it has been deferred, it looks like it is a five-year project now. In fact, I think I said that at the beginning of this session, that we are doing the Inuvik to Tuk highway and to be completed in four years, a $270 million project and here we have a $7 million airport runway and it has taken us five years, and it is not even that long, I think it is only 3,000 feet or metres, anyway, or 3,500 metres and that is something they have been looking for. We want a win-win, the community wants a win-win, the department wants to win. It pains me to no end to see it delayed and deferred continuously. The
Minister did say in the House that they are looking for completion this year. Of course, I’m looking for reaffirmation of that statement as well.
I’m supportive of the Corridors for Canada III funding proposal and hopefully the Minister can get some good news and get to our committee and look at those priorities. I know that it also has to do with the Minister of Finance’s request for an additional $1 billion added to our loan amount that we could meet these funding plans that are laid out in Corridors for Canada III. With that, I will conclude, but also I think the Minister said it in his opening remarks as well. Increased industrial traffic north of Fort Simpson does make a case for additional resources.
On Wrigley road, I’m pleased to see that is in the capital plan. There were some plans to also strengthen some of the weakened areas on Highway No. 1 north of Fort Simpson towards Wrigley. As well, I’m so glad that perhaps the Minister can comment on this as well. It also makes the department to start developing a business case for continuing all-weather roads north of Wrigley as well. I certainly support that and the more traffic that we have there, the more development happens in the Sahtu. Shale does make for a business case. We have to take that momentum and jump on that. In fact, we may even have a long-term dream is to have a larger loop that tours can travel, which is straight up the Mackenzie Valley. Then they can go down the Dempster or come up the Dempster and down the Mackenzie Valley. That will certainly increase the amount of tourism to our great Northwest Territories. There will be a lot of economic spinoffs as a result of that. With that, those are my opening comments, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much.