.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A plan by Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington to revise the NWT Act to transfer control of road construction to the territorial government is not getting much support from Premier Floyd Roland.

In Bevington's member's statement last Monday he said he was working on a private member's bill to amend section 16 of the NWT act, giving the NWT control over decision-making regarding highway construction. He said the change would make clear who would decide to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

"The responsibility needs to clearly rest on the government of the NWT and that's not the case right now," he said. "It's ambiguous at best and likely not there. We need to clarify that and bring more attention to the project in Ottawa."

However, Premier Floyd Roland said having control over the construction of the highway means nothing without financial support from the federal government.

"We'd want to make sure we are clear how we would support it," Roland said about the private member's bill. "It comes back down to who has the authority right now and who has the dollars to do something like this. Giving us the authority without dollars is only going to add to the burden we already have to deal with."

Roland said they have few details about what Bevington is doing and wants to fully understand what is happening before backing the idea.

"We've looked at ideas where we can do some of the cost sharing, but the bulk of the money would have to be funded by federal money," he said. "There is support for the highway, but without knowing the details of what Mr. Bevington is doing, it's a concern for us.

"We don't want the authority of roads without proper revenues attached to that."

Bevington said since he's been in office, the federal government hasn't advanced the idea of the highway. He said with recent support from MLAs and the Dene Nation to build the road means this is the time to act.

"This project fits with everything else this government wants to do in the NWT, like a pipeline," said Bevington.

"We need to get clarified who has the responsibility of the highway. This is a good way to introduce some of the issues behind devolution to Ottawa."

Roland said the idea of control over roads is good, but without the proper funding it would do more harm than good, eluding to the transfer of control of Health and Social Services to the GNWT.

"Since then, without adequate funding and without a way of making that up we've had to make some tough choices on just what levels of programming we can invest in," he said. "That always becomes an issue. If we get authority over the highway without funding what good is that ability."

Roland plans to meet with Bevington this week when the MP returns to the North while Parliament is on break.