Wally Schumann

At present, right now, the Department of ITI is working with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey and we are looking at expanding our geological knowledge on the Mactung property.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that the Department of Transportation's contractor has started its fourth and final winter of construction on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway. As we come nearer to completing construction, I want to talk about the significance of this project to the communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and the residents of the Beaufort Delta.

The project has already significantly contributed to local employment. At the peak of construction last winter, more than 430 individuals were employed on the project, with 74 per cent of these coming from the Beaufort Delta region or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member had it in his statement today, all the facts that he's brought forward with the increased tourism in the Northwest Territories, which we are totally supportive of to help diversify our economy, we are totally in support of trying to help alleviate the burden on the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, and I'm sure he's going to have more questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll get back to the department and pull together how we fund and operate these other tourism centres in the Northwest Territories. I know in particular in Hay River, it's the Hay River Tourism Information Centre, but I believe we actually probably give them some kind of contribution to help offset some of the costs, but I will get that information together and give it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I guess, to inform the House, there are a couple of things going on. Public Works and Services and ITI are involved in a couple of things on this facility, and so is CanNor.

There are two parallel streams going forward. We've hired an engineering firm to look at and do the structural investigation on the facility and what can be done and what needs to be done if anything can be done. At the same time, CanNor has supplied some money to do a business case on how do we move that forward for the Northern Frontier Visitors' Information Centre. That business case will decide if the current building...

I would have to double check that with the department, but I know we are waiting to get both of those studies back before we decide the next steps on how we can help with the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre.

There are a number of parties that would be involved in this, depending on what the reports come back. There is ourselves. There is the City of Yellowknife. The Northern Frontier Visitors Information Centre is a standalone organization. When this building was built in the early 90s, there were a number of people that contributed to building this, from the federal government to the...

First of all, the project is currently undergoing an environmental assessment by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. That was submitted or it was referred to an assessment in, if I remember correctly, end of July of 2016.

As we move forward and it works through that process, the next part of it was that we actually release the request for proposal to get assistance in developing the procurement documents for this project. Moving on from there, the next step will be going out to an RFQ process to see to get qualified bidders who can handle this project, the building of it and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Construction of the Canyon Creek all-season road access, we are expecting it to begin in March of this year, 2017. This is expected to be completed by October of 2018. We are very glad to announce this project. It is going to bring significant employment to the region, and training, as I said in my earlier comments. It is going to bring approximately 50 jobs to the region and help with the training aspect of a number of individuals. We contributed to our mandate working forward. Thank you for that, Mr. Speaker.

The department is working to advance the next priority phase of the project, the Bear River Bridge. In particular, the department is conducting a review of the original design that was done in 2005. What we want to do is make sure it is compliant with current codes and standards in addition to the funding that was received earlier in the new year. We are working on the Canyon Creek project to move that along. This project will bring training and experience gained by the Sahtu residents that will be used towards the next phase of the construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This manager position is located in Yellowknife. Its duties are a pan-territorial responsibility and it's best fit here in the ITI headquarters, and we have no plans on moving this position to Hay River.