Infrastructure Minister Wally Schumann said a highway up the Mackenzie Valley will have a huge impact on the NWT – as will each step along the way."If the Mackenzie Valley Highway is completed, it's going to open up the whole Sahtu region to a whole variety of things around tourism, oil and gas – and around the limitations on that with the opening and closing of the winter roads and how that confines the development of some of that stuff and increases costs."
Earlier this month, the federal government announced $102.5 million, in addition to a GNWT investment of $37.5 million, to build a bridge over the Great Bear River, extend an all-weather road north from Wrigley to Mount Gaudet and conduct environmental and construction planning for the rest of the highway up to connect with the Dempster.
Schumann said the effect of this work will be felt right away, especially in what tends to be a problematic area of the Sahtu winter road.
"The Great Bear River is such a fast-flowing river that (this past year and other years) it initially froze up then what happened was it broke loose and started pushing upstream towards Tulita," said Schumann.
This delays the construction of the ice road, which already has to go way out on the Mackenzie River to circumvent the high-current area of the Great Bear River.
"Putting the bridge there is going to free up the road to operate for potentially a month longer," said Schumann.
"When you only have winter access, that makes a big difference."
Schumann said the next phases of construction that the GNWT will be looking for federal funding to accomplish will likely be to extend the road from Mount Gaudet to Tulita; then, from Tulita to Canyon Creek to connect with a road that travels to Norman Wells; as well as the environmental assessment process.
Having a road to Norman Wells, he said, will help developers access the possibly billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic metres of natural gas in the region.
"There's tons of mineral potential there, probably just as much as any other region of the Northwest Territories, it's just that nobody's ever really chased it because it's been an oil and gas region for so long."
Of course, more industry could mean more challenges for the NWT's carbon tax plan.
Andrew Robinson, who was brought on by Alternatives North to author the report "A 100% Renewable Energy NWT by 2050," said that it would likely be the industrial uptick rather than any changes in air or vehicular traffic in the region that would largely impact emission levels.
"If the (highway) led to major new industrial development, the emissions from that would dwarf any savings from avoided flying to the communities," he wrote, noting that he had not studied the implications of the highway.
"Not to say, of course that development can't be low-carbon," he added, noting that hopefully new mines might consider wood pellets, wind and solar for power and biogas for transportation technologies.
Schumann also has faith in the tourism potential of the road, which would open up the Sahtu communities and cultures, as well as the natural beauty of the Mackenzie Mountains and their rivers, to visitors.
He cited the huge influx of visitors currently being seen in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik now that a highway connects those two communities and to allow visitors to drive right to the Arctic Ocean.
He also said the social impact of a road should not be overlooked.
"When you look at what the residents of Tuktoyaktuk are saying, the benefits are enormous," said Schumann. "You're not isolated."
As an example, he cited sports teams that would have to raise money all year to fly out of Tuktoyaktuk to compete.
"Now they can just drive out any given weekend and go compete in Inuvik or even farther south," he said. "People want access to the day-to-day lifestyle that the people in Yellowknife already have."