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Highway work 'looking really good' Economic boom expected as major project employs 150 people
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, June 20, 2013
INUVIK
Inuvik-Twin Lakes MLA and cabinet minister Robert C. McLeod says the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway is on schedule.
Inuvik-Twin Lakes MLA Robert C. McLeod was one of the dignitaries at the Inuvik Petroleum Show. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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McLeod was at the Inuvik Petroleum Show last week to provide an update on the project for Transportation Minister David Ramsay, who was unable to attend.
"There's really nothing new," McLeod said. "I was just giving an update on behalf of the minister on the work that's been done to date and the numbers are looking really good," he said. "The numbers I really like are the 150 people who are working on it.
"I said this morning that people here in the Beau-Del (Beaufort Delta) like to work, from way back in the early days of the oil industry. They just like to work, and it's a good opportunity for them to get back to it."
He said the current work happening at Tuktoyaktuk is "90 per cent done, and there's going to be some work happening on Navy Road" in Inuvik later this year as well.
"Once all that's done the big part is the (wilderness section), which is the tough part. It looks like it's going to be a very scenic route. It's going by the Husky Lakes. I think it's going to be great."
McLeod defended the decision to proceed with the project, which is being funded with a great deal of assistance from the federal government, before any work occurred on the proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway. That project would link the Beaufort Delta region with the remainder of the NWT, while the Inuvik-Tuk highway will link the area more firmly with the Yukon.
"I think the rationale for doing it this way was the idea of connecting Canada coast-to-coast-to-coast," he said. "We've already got the Dempster Highway, and now this will complete the coast-to-coast-to-coast. I'd like to see the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I think it would be huge for this area, and connect the communities along the valley.
"And it'd be huge for tourism too, since a lot of tourists like to drive in loops," he said.
Premier Bob McLeod also weighed in on that idea. He said in a separate interview that he believed the Mackenzie Valley Highway would be the next major project on the GNWT's agenda once the Northern highway is completed and the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link is installed.
"There's a lot going on now and things are slowly starting to pick up," he said.
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