NWT wants all-weather highway to arctic coast

YELLOWKNIFE, NWT — The Northwest Territories is calling down to Ottawa for $700 million in loan guarantees in order to extend the all-weather Mackenzie Highway roughly 800 km from Wrigley to Tuktoyaktuk.

“It’s certainly about resources,” says deputy transport minister Russell Neudorf.

The proposal estimates 10,000 trucks a year could be rolling along the route by 2010, although Neudorf admits that date is “a little ambitious.”

The proposed route of the $700 million, all-weather extension
to the Northwest Territories’ Mackenzie Highway.

Trumpeting several advantages, the territorial government also said this link to the arctic coast would make northern transport more resistant to climate change by eliminating the need for several ice roads.

The cost of building the route would be financed over 35 years with debt payments of $35 million a year. That means the true cost of paying for the extension would be $1.225 billion.

Neudorf says rather than looking at $1.225 billion or $700 million, he prefers to focus on $35 million per year, calling that “potentially more palatable” to the federal government.

Part of the proposal calls for a $500 toll all commercial vehicles using the route to help offset the cost.

“Based on 10,000 trucks per year … $500 seemed like a nice round number,” says Neudorf.

Long-time Hay River owner-operator Earl Ruttle, who started running NWT ice roads in 1967, says the savings in repairs would make up the price of the toll.

“You have to use tire chains as soon as you go north of Wrigley,” he says. “Those cost $1,000 for a good set and you need to carry two.”

— by John Curran