The federal government will provide up to 25 per cent of eligible project costs through the P3 Canada Fund. The other participating government partner is the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The procurement of the road through a public-private partnership will start with the release of the Request for Qualifications in February 2017 and will be followed by a Request for Proposals with bids from private industry to provide combined finance and construction.

The project will consist of approximately 97 kilometres of a new two-lane road to Whati, including four new bridges and one large arched culvert, indicates a federal government media statement.

Currently served by a winter ice road, the Tlicho region has overland access to the Yellowknife region and southern Canada for only three months of the year. During the remaining months, food and supplies are flown in at significant costs, with resulting food prices often 50 per cent higher than in Yellowknife.

Whati is located 50 kilometres south of Fortune Minteral's proposed NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper mine, which has already received environmental assessment approval and the major mine permits for construction, including the 50-kilometre spur road to Whati. A Fortune media statement explained the road is a "critical enabler for mine operations and will allow the company to truck metal concentrates south to the rail head at Hay River for railway delivery to its proposed refinery in Saskatchewan for downstream processing to value added products."

With development of the NICO project, Fortune would become a supplier of cobalt chemicals needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and stationary storage cells.

The N.W.T. government is also working on improved winter road access to the communities of Gameti and Wekweti. The routing for the all-season road follows an existing brownfield land-based winter road route to minimize environmental disturbance and lower construction costs.