Dempster Highway maintenance funding not slashed, Yukon gov't says

Yukon's NDP had some questions about maintenance of the Dempster Highway, and tourism, as funding for the highway appeared to be slashed by 98 per centin the territory's latest budget.

But the government says thosenumbers are misleading.

The highway starts just southeast of Dawson City and stretches northeast across the N.W.T.border to Inuvik. Last summer, it drew more tourists as they headed tothe new all-weather road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktukto the Arctic Ocean.

In the latest Yukon budget, $50,000has been earmarked for construction on the DempsterHighway this year, compared to $3.1 million in 2018-2019.

NDP leader Liz Hanson wondershow that will affect tourism in theregion,when she says there was a nearly 50 per cent increase in visitors to Tombstone Territorial Park from 2012 to 2017. The highway bisects the park.

"I hear from the government opposite a heck of a lot about a 'whole-of-government approach,'" Hanson said Monday afternoon in committee of the whole, referring to the Liberal government's professed governing style that values collaboration across departments.

"I can pull up on the website here the Yukon Tourism Development Strategy, and what do you think you see when you pull that up? What is the most iconic image that you have? Would it be the Tombstones?" Hanson asked.

"How are you going to get there when that road is washed out?"

Highways and Public Works Minister Richard Mostynresponded by sayingthe picture is not so bleak.

Mostyn saysthe Dempster is actually getting about $6.5 million in funding this year: $1.9 million for the Klondike River bridge at the Dempster cutoff and$4.5 million for regular maintenance. The $50,000 in the capital budget is for flood remediation.

"We're doing an awful lot of work on a very big system in a very remote, geographically challenging region on a shoestring budget," Mostyn told reporters on Tuesday, saying he has $70 million to maintain the territory's roughly 5,000 kilometresof highways and bridges.

"We're looking at traffic studies and trying to figure out where best to put our resources so it's triage," he said.

"Where the most traffic is, we'll put the most resources to upgrade our roads," he said.

Mostyn says the busiest stretch of highway in the territory is the Alaska Highway between the South Klondike and North Klondike intersections, through Whitehorse.