Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Wrigley (Oct 20/00) - The Pehdzeh Ki First Nation supports a Mackenzie highway extension north to Tulita.

PKFN Chief Albert Moses met with representatives from Tulita in Yellowknife last week and they agreed to form a working group to further their cause.

"It's like the pipeline working group, if there's enough interest it will go ahead ... we're always looking for work," said Moses, who added that First Nations formed a corporation to complete the final stretch of highway into Wrigley in 1994.

"That way we had a lot of employment for everybody. I think this is the way we're looking at it again," he said. "The training is one of the main things right now."

Alvin Yallee, president of the Tulita Land Corporation, said partnering with industry and private investors will be necessary to make an all-weather road viable.

"And hopefully the government will come on board and we can all get together and build it ... there's a federal election coming up too, now's the time to put it in the spotlight," he said.

"There's all kinds of reasons why it's got to be done ... the cost of living in this community is just ridiculous."

Yallee said he hopes work on the 235-kilometre road will begin in the near future and be completed within five years

That way Tulita won't have to wait on a Mackenzie Valley pipeline to potentially open up a road.

A definite price tag has not been attached to the project, but it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Yallee said.

There's a possibility of making it a toll road, but Moses said the volume of traffic would be low.

Not all Sahtu communities have openly welcomed the idea of a highway extension. Yallee said he's only concerned about Tulita.

Just a few weeks ago, the PKFN took the first step to protect land and water north of the community.

Therefore, further studies would have to be done to ensure that an all-weather road would not affect important sites, Moses added.