Masi, Mr. Speaker, I'll do it for a third time. Mr. Speaker, last August 14, the territorial government announced that it had secured a $30 million contribution from the federal government's National Trade Corridor Fund. This contribution coupled with a corresponding $10 million from GNWT to fund an environmental assessment and planning for the Slave Geological Transportation Corridor. The planning component of $40 million investment will, among other things, bring the first section of corridor to a "shovel-ready" state. Mr. Speaker, that section is running from the end of our existing Highway 4 to Lockhart Lake.
Mr. Speaker, the previous government is to be commended for acquiring federal support for Slave Geological Corridor. However, Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that the territorial government has not had the same success with the Frank Channel Bridge, which the Minister of Infrastructure acknowledges is in dire need of replacement, Mr. Speaker, which is also the subject of an application for National Trade Corridor funding, and which is vastly more critical to the people of this territory than the Slave Geological Corridor. It's ironic, Mr. Speaker, that, without the Frank Channel Bridge, the Slave Geological Transportation Corridor won't see a single truck axel, won't carry a single stick of freight. That is, of course, because one must cross the Frank Channel Bridge in order to reach that corridor.
Mr. Speaker, this department's "cart before the horse" logic makes me wonder if the Minister's department has given sufficient priority to the Frank Channel Bridge. It makes me wonder, also, if perhaps this department has been too busy pandering to the whims of mining industries rather than providing the real meat-and-potatoes infrastructure needs of our people. I will have questions for the appropriate Minister at the appropriate time. Masi.