Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Monday, February 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Transportation Minister Kevin Menicoche said his department is working towards erecting traffic lights at the Behchoko junction of Highway. 3.

Menicoche also said he is willing to discuss transferring maintenance duties over to a Tlicho crew for that region of the highway.

Menicoche made the comments in the legislative assembly after Monfwi MLA Jackson Lafferty brought up Behchoko Chief Leon Lafferty's concerns about Highway. 3 maintenance and safety issues between the Behchoko junction and Yellowknife. Several accidents since the winter season began have spurred the chief and MLA to urge action from the GNWT.

"To tell you the truth, I am totally disgusted with the department as they are concentrating all their efforts to Yellowknife and the Ingraham Trail," the chief wrote in a letter to the Department of Transportation (DOT).

In the legislative assembly, Lafferty suggested turning highway maintenance over to the Tlicho government as a way of ensuring work, such as removing debris from the highway, gets done in a timely basis. "I'd like to focus on the maintenance of Highway. 3, ... empowering essential services to the respected jurisdiction, the community of Behchoko-Edzo crew," said the Monfwi MLA.

Menicoche said members of the area's DOT maintenance crew already live in Edzo but that he was willing to sit down with Lafferty and the chief to further discuss the matter. As for the $90,000 project to put traffic lights at the junction, Menicoche said DOT, the Tlicho Government and the NWT Power Corp. "were working towards that."