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Good morning everyone and thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, including some of our P3 projects, as well as the potential for infrastructure investment across the North. 

I want to highlight some of our successes to date, but before I do that I’d like to give you a little context for why infrastructure investment in our territory is so important. 

Yellowknife Airport continues to focus on improvements that contribute to better passenger experience.  Necessary upgrades are being made to the regular baggage screening system.  As a result, passengers with checked baggage are asked to arrive 90-minutes before their scheduled departure time to avoid delays. During this phase of the upgrades, passengers are required to have their bags tagged at the airline counter before bringing them to the oversized baggage area for screening. This phase of the project is scheduled to continue until the end of May.

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Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to speak to you today during the 43^rd AGM Luncheon.

As members and stakeholders of the Northern Air Transport Association, you each understand that aviation is an important industry to Northern Canada. 

Premier Bob McLeod today announced the appointment of Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar as Associate Deputy Minister of Infrastructure. Mr. Kalgutkar will assume his position effective May 13, 2019.

In his new role, Mr. Kalgutkar will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of major infrastructure projects of critical significance to the long-term economic health of the Northwest Territories, including Taltson Hydro Expansion, Slave Geological Province Corridor, and Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Economic diversification and job creation are key to ensuring a strong and resilient economy in the North. This is why the Government of Canada is investing $2.7M in nine economic development projects in the Northwest Territories (NWT).

This announcement was made today by Michael McLeod, Member of Parliament for Northwest Territories, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CanNor.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed today by the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) and Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated (SSI) for the advancement of the Mackenzie Valley Highway (MVH) project.

Wally Schumann, Minister of Infrastructure and Charles McNeely, SSI Chair signed the MOU during the GNWT-SSI bilateral meeting today in Norman Wells.

The MOU outlines how the GNWT and SSI will cooperate on the advancement of the MVH project through the environmental review and regulatory processes.

Minister Schumann delivered the following keynote speech via video-conference at an event hosted by Carleton University:

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Good morning everyone.

I’m pleased to be able to speak to you this morning from Yellowknife, on this important policy symposium on the future of Canada’s north. 

Thank you to Carleton University’s School of Public Policy for helping bring attention to the issues that are so critical for the people who live in northern Canada. 

In fact, these are issues that should matter to all Canadians.  

The Department of Infrastructure advises that unseasonably warm temperatures are impacting roads and ice road conditions across the Northwest Territories. Here are the latest road conditions:

The Government of the Northwest Territories advises that a new vehicle pull-out has opened adjacent to the Dettah ice road.

The new pull-out is located approximately half way along the 6.3 kilometre ice road between Yellowknife and Dettah.

Residents and tourists will benefit from the pull-out by having the option of safely stopping to enjoy winter activities, such as aurora borealis viewing. 

The attached map illustrates the layout of the pull-out, as well as the location of nearby signs.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has been working hard to fulfill its mandate commitment to secure funding to advance planning and construction of priority transportation corridors in the Northwest Territories. This includes upgrading the winter road portions of the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road to an all-weather highway, and planning for the Slave Geological Province Corridor. Today, I am pleased to provide an update on the status of these strategic infrastructure projects.