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Highway one step closer Mackenzie Valley Highway ready for final regulatory phase; estimated cost at $1.7 billionNathalie Heiberg-Harrison Northern News Services Published Monday, March 12, 2012
The final project description report for the K'asho Got'ine district portion of the highway was submitted to David Ramsay, the minister of Transportation, on March 5. Now, reports for the Gwich'in Settlement Area, Tulita district, Pehdzeh Ki (Wrigley) and K'asho Got'ine (Fort Good Hope) will be compiled into one all-encompassing document that will be submitted to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for environmental screening. The initial cost estimate for the highway from Wrigley to Inuvik is $1.7 billion, and funding will likely be split between the Government of the NWT and the federal government, like the portion of the highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk. Jim Stevens, director of the Mackenzie Valley Highway for the Department of Transportation, estimates the GNWT will be ready to request funding from the federal government in two years. "Until we go through this environmental assessment, I don't think the feds have any appetite to provide any funding," he said. The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board may provide the project's final environmental screening, but Stevens cautioned that if they find environmental impacts or public concern to be significant, an environmental assessment could be "triggered." "Under ideal conditions you might get away with just a preliminary screening," Stevens said. "I don't think we're that naive and we're expecting that it will go to the environmental assessment, and that will require more detailed environmental data and social economic data." Ramsay, in a press release on March 5, stated the highway project will help sustain the K'asho Got'ine and their way of life. Edwin Erutse, president of the K'asho Got'ine Development Foundation in Fort Good Hope, agreed. "We have learned from the past that governments need to work closely with the people most affected by the project and plan together," he said. "Our involvement in the creation of this (project description report) will help to make this project a success." Stevens said the final project description reports were more reflective of aboriginal views and values because of increased involvement with residents. "In the past, the government used to show up and say, 'What do you think about this report?' We've changed that around," he said. The four project description reports contained summaries of the information required for an environmental review of the highway project. The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk portion of the highway was classified as separate from the Mackenzie Valley Highway because it is further ahead in the regulatory process. Funding for the reports was split between the GNWT and the federal government's Northern Economic Development Agency.
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