Inuvik to Tuk Highway Audit Motion – MLA Kam Lake

Inuvik to Tuk Highway Audit Motion – MLA Kam Lake

(YELLOWKNIFE) Friday, June 1, 2018 – Mr. Kieron Testart, the Member for Kam Lake is disappointed that the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories has defeated a motion to have the Auditor General of Canada undertake a special audit of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway project.

Yesterday, Mr. Testart moved a motion in the Legislative Assembly to request that the Auditor General of Canada, who is also the Auditor General for the Northwest Territories, undertake a review of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway project, a $300 million dollar infrastructure project that was undertaken by the GNWT as a negotiated contract.

“The purpose of such a review is to ensure that large infrastructure projects are well-managed according to best practices, that they deliver good value for the taxpayer’s dollars, and that we can learn from our experiences in order to better manage future projects,” said Mr. Testart.  “I am at a loss to understand why the Members of the Assembly who voted against this motion would not want to discover what lessons can be learned from this project, especially when the costs of this independent analysis are borne by the Office of the Auditor General.”

The Inuvik-Tuk Highway was initiated by the 17th Legislative Assembly, and is the most costly infrastructure project undertaken to date by the GNWT.  Cost and contract considerations during construction resulted in changes to the project’s methodology.  As well, there were unplanned closures during the first year of the highway’s operation.  These factors make the project worthy of analysis, in the opinion of the Member for Kam Lake.

In 2011, the Office of the Auditor General undertook a compliance audit of the Deh Cho Bridge Project, at the request of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly.  The audit looked at whether the GNWT put in place a framework to manage the key risks associated with the project’s quality, schedule, scope and cost.  The audit did not look at the performance of contractors.

For more information, please contact:

Kieron Testart
MLA Kam Lake
Legislative Assembly of the NWT
P: 867-767-9143 ext. 12135
E: kieron_testart@gov.nt.ca