Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway was one of the largest construction projects undertaken by the Government of the Northwest Territories, and it was completed for the most part on time and on budget. Although the terrain on which the highway was constructed is challenging, the design, planning, and construction of the highway were all conducted by a team of experts. Overall, the highway has been performing as expected. The first winter season of operation was successful, and the highway experienced an average of 60 to 70 vehicles per day.

The contractor is addressing some work not completed last season and the deficiencies from the final inspection, which include final embankment compaction, surfacing gravel on select sections, and work around bridges and culverts such as rip-rap installation and painting. This work could not have been completed prior to freeze-up last year and has carried forward to this summer. These are all normal kinds of works to complete a major project, and there is a budget available for this work.

This project has been undertaken in an open and transparent manner and had significant financial, environmental, and operational oversight by numerous federal, territorial, regulatory, and other agencies. Members of the Legislative Assembly and the public have been kept fully informed on the progress on environmental and regulatory review and permitting, procurement, construction, and operations. Several strategic oversight committees were set up to ensure proper management throughout the project. These included a departmental oversight committee that met on a weekly basis, frequent reports to the P3 and Infrastructure deputy minister's committees, regular updates to the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway ministerial oversight committee, regular written in-person briefings from Members of the Legislative Assembly, and frequent progress reports provided to the public during peak construction periods. The departmental project oversight committee reviewed issues including construction progress, environmental compliance, budget, potential emerging risks, local employment, local spending, and training updates, and also identified items that required action.

Infrastructure Canada staff were part of the monthly project meetings involving the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Inuvialuit Land Administration, contractors, regulators, an independent engineer, and also interested parties. The project involved every significant regulatory and permitting oversight. The Department of Infrastructure was transparent in monitoring its commitments and tracking our progress to meet our environmental assessment commitments, and were publicly available on the project website. The department also met twice yearly with all regulators as part of the corridor working group, another requirement from the environmental assessment.

The Department of Infrastructure followed regular GNWT contracting procedures and adhered to Cabinet decisions on this process. The necessary regulatory permits were obtained with the support of the Inuvialuit Water Board for water licences, and the Inuvialuit Land Administration for quarry permits and land use permits. The Department of Infrastructure actively tracked all identified risk elements of the project with a risk matrix that was updated on a regular basis.

Environmental risk were managed in partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories departments and federal agencies, including the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Environment and Natural Resources, who monitored the project for wildlife, and federal departments of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment and Climate Change Canada. In total, 235 environmental commitments were tracked and reported throughout the project. An agreement management committee with representation from Infrastructure Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories was established to administer and monitor the contribution agreement. This committee met twice per year through the duration of the project to review project status and ensure compliance with the agreement.

An independent financial audit has been completed annually to ensure revenue and expenditures are in accordance with the federal funding agreement. In addition, the annual audit by the Office of the Auditor General of the GNWT public accounts included the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project.

Payments from Canada were based on milestones. If Canada was concerned about project management, payments would have been withheld or held back and not released. Infrastructure Canada is now conducting a joint audit and evaluation of its programs, and will be reviewing the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway as part of this audit. This will be conducting site visits to Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk in June of this year, and will speak to the Government of the Northwest Territories and community representatives to review the benefits to communities of this project.

Federal officials indicated that this is one of the most highly monitored and transparent projects they have ever seen, which speaks to the level of oversight that is being committed to the project. Given the high level of the project oversight, the Department of Infrastructure does not believe a special audit will have incremental value, and there are other higher-priority issues the auditor general could look into. However, if an audit is undertaken, the government is very confident that these audit results will be positive. With this, Cabinet will not be supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.