In a quiet room at the Explorer Hotel, the Conservative Party announced their second part of their Canada First Arctic Defence Plan and what it means for the NWT.
The party's plan promises to upgrade the Forward Operating Location in Inuvik to full base status, allowing it to host fighter jets and Husky tankers, securing the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. It also promises to build a 600 km all-season road from Yellowknife to Grays Bay, including a strategic upgrade to the Port of Grays Bay.
That's in addition to the party's promises of NORAD upgrades and investments in tactical helicopters, missiles, satellite ground support and forward base enhancements in Yellowknife.
Chris Warkentin, the Conservative MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, made the announcement on April 17. Candidate for the NWT Kimberly Fairman stood beside him while he did.
Fairman,, said she stands behind the announcement. "I feel that the Conservative Party is putting Canada first and the North first in these instances."
These are big dollars the party is promising, on top of other massive projects they've expressed support for. Last summer, when Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre came to Yellowknife, he told SA国际影视传媒 he is "certainly open" to a Mackenzie Valley Highway from the southern NWT to the Beaufort Delta.
"I want to see a proposal on my desk, day one, with the full cost, the full plan, and the full timeline," he said then.
The highway SA国际影视传媒� a proposed two-lane gravel route that would connect NWT communities to the rest of Canada year-round SA国际影视传媒� is no small project, costing upwards of a billion dollars. And that 600 km all-season road from Yellowknife to Grays Bay, otherwise known as the Great Slave Geological Province Corridor, would also cost upwards of a billion dollars, according to the GNWT.
Asked why northerners should believe a Conservative government would spend billions on the territory once in power, Fairman said she believes there is plenty of potential in the NWT and a Conservative government is willing to support that.
Pressed again about how that government does both, Warkentin said that in the past decade, the North's potential has been cut off and there is a serious need for investment.
"We believe that we absolutely must reverse course, not only for the potential and prosperity here in the North but a prosperity that will cascade across the country as investments continue to be made," said Warkentin.
SA国际影视传媒 specifically asked for Fairman to answer, but when Warkentin passed the microphone over, Fairman shook her head and said nothing.
