NWT - The federal government is pitching in $3 million for a Department of Transportation feasibility study examining the economic and environmental viability of building an all-weather road from Wrigley to the Dempster Highway, which ends in Inuvik.

Chuck Strahl: $7 million all-weather road study is "necessary, detailed work." - NNSL file photo

Chuck Strahl, minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, made the announcement on Friday in Yellowknife, with Premier Floyd Roland and Michael McLeod, minister of public works and services, at his side. The total cost of the feasibility study – expected to take three years to complete – is $7 million. The GNWT will provide the remaining $4 million.

"The feasibility study is important because it will produce really the first hard data, not just the wish list, but some hard data on the decisions that need to be made to do a (road)," said Strahl.

"The Mackenzie Valley Highway would generate numerous job opportunities. It would lower the cost of living for Northerners. It would stimulate exploration. It could lead to development of natural resources. For all those reasons, it has captured the imaginations of many people."

But Strahl also cautioned that the feasibility is merely the first step in a long process and refrained from predicting a timeline for completion of the road.

"This is not the construction of the road," he said. "This is the necessary, detailed work (where we) talk about everything from routes to jurisdiction."

Friday's announcement marked the second in a recent series of initiatives aimed at determining the viability of the long hoped-for Mackenzie Valley Highway. In September, the feds provided the GNWT $1 million to complete a feasibility study on a road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk.

According to McLeod, a first draft of that study has already been completed, with the final version due in the next seven to eight months. Roland said the level of co-operation between both levels of government is a good sign.

"The last time we heard about roads to resources was in the days in Diefenbaker, so we've come a long way," said the premier. "It's good to see that this government is joining us and partnering with us in putting the next crucial pieces in place to see that the Northwest Territories grows."

Merven Gruben, mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, who was on hand for the announcement, greeted the announcement warmly.

"It already was a positive indicator when we started the (feasibility) work on the Tuk-Inuvik highway," said Gruben.