Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec o4/98) - Alberta now has a better take on how it could benefit from a road into the resource-rich zone north of Yellowknife, says Mayor Dave Lovell.

Lovell was among 155 Yellowknife delegates at the Meet the North, Build a Vision conference earlier this week in Edmonton.

The city, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Regional Frontier Visitors Centre shared a booth at the event's trade show.

When it comes to getting the road going, the NWT needs the support of jurisdictions like Alberta, Lovell said.

Two lobby groups have emerged to get a road to the mineral zone.

The Yellowknife group wants the road to go through the capital while others want the road to go North from Rae-Edzo.

Money for the project, which could cost $600 million, will have to come from the federal government, Lovell said.

To outline how important the NWT road to resources could be to Alberta, information sheets on the benefits "to all Canadians" were being handed out throughout the conference.

Information on the handout suggests:

* Every dollar of gross domestic product in the North generates 81 cents GDP in the rest of Canada.

* Every person year of employment in the NWT generates 1.8 person years of employment in the rest of Canada.

Alberta is often a major beneficiary of money spent in the North.

According to a Conference Board of Canada report on the proposed road, GDP, employment and tax benefits would be substantially higher with a road.

* Two diamond mines operating without a road generate $14.7 billion in new GDP, 110,297 additional person years of employment and $5.7 billion in additional GNWT-federal tax revenue.

* An all-weather corridor could generate a total of $50.6 billion GDP, 395,265 in person years and $19.6 billion in tax revenues.

"We've got support from the province," Lovell said. Alberta and the NWT government have signed a memorandum of understanding on the need for a road.

But there were no commitments for money from Alberta.