Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/05) - Premier Joe Handley has political support from across Canada for building a highway up the Mackenzie Valley to the Beaufort Sea.

"You'll be able to drive right from Tuk to Mexico," Handley said at the close of a three-day Council of Federation meeting in Banff, Alta., with Canada's premiers.

Estimated cost of the 963 km all-weather road from Wrigley to Tuktoyaktuk is $700 million, and could be open within the next five years, Handley said.

Ottawa should pay for the project, Handley said, and cited history, Canada's claims to sovereignty, and the need for faster, cheaper access to the Arctic to support his case.

The nation was built on a transportation vision and the Arctic highway "completes Canada when we have all three oceans connected," he said.

In their final communique, the premiers said they will develop a "comprehensive national transportation strategy... which must include both east-west and north-south focus."

The last study on extending the Mackenzie Highway was released by the territorial government in 1999. It assumed a 10-year construction period and favour a "community construction approach" with the road built "in small increments over an extended period of time."

Even with this approach, the report estimates every dollar spent would only mean a 16-cent benefit for Northern firms and residents.

Annual maintenance of the route is project to cost $10,000 per kilometre or as much as $4.4 million total.

"The project is not attractive from a strict economic perspective," the study concluded. "Its strengths are in the redistribution of wealth rather that in creating it."

Many Sahtu leaders have championed completing the road and that's something Fort Good Hope resident Megan Tobac, 20, would welcome.

"It would be a lot more convenient," she said. "Having a road to use would be better than paying airfare every time you want to go somewhere."

She said the improved transportation link would hopefully bring down the cost of goods in her community.

"Gas just went up from 99.9 cents/litre to $1.17 something," she said. "I think a road would mean lower prices."

Some opposed

Not everyone is excited by renewed rumblings about building a year-round road link through the region.

A Norman Wells resident for seven years, Nick Dale said he could think of better ways to spend $700 million.

"I suppose we could travel out to get supplies but we've got the winter road and barges now, you just have to plan ahead," said the owner of Mountain River Outdoor Adventures.

"Theoretically it might lower our cost of living, but it's still a long way to transport goods from Edmonton."

A frequent user of the winter road, Dale said it takes him about 19 hours to go from his community to High Level, Alta.

"With an all-weather road maybe you could do it in 17 hours," he said.

Rather than improving his life, Dale said if the highway goes through it will probably mean the end of his livelihood.

"We do some guiding, but our business is mainly canoe rentals because it's hard for people to bring their own with them," he said. "I can see my business going right down the tubes."

- with files from John Curran