Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, I guess I’m a bit disappointed to hear that the GNWT has not got a more firm or more aggressive position on this at this point. The DIAND Minister, Jim Prentice, clearly has the mandate to make this happen. In light of the, as I indicated in my statement, absence so far of any substantive legacy project from the already massive development that is underway in the NWT, will the Minister seriously consider the advantages that legacy projects such as hydro, roads and communication projects will have and press that case for federal government investment, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, my questions this morning are for Mr. Bell, the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it concerns the suggestion floated a few days ago by Tristone Capital that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline won’t cut it on commercial terms unless the federal government jumps in with a suggested $2 billion worth of support. Mr. Speaker, my first question is does the GNWT agree with the suggestion that the federal government must put taxpayers' money into the Mackenzie gas project to make it viable? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The financial and community, territorial and federal governments, and certainly the developers of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline project, are, I think, still trying to get used to the stunning news of a couple of months ago about the revision, cost and the timing of the pipeline. The cost is more than doubled to something like $16 billion Canadian with a completion date for the project now in 2014. One global energy advisor, a company called Tristone Capital, in a report just last week, said that the very high-risk project, in order to earn the high returns that...

Madam Chair, I certainly understand that we run a number of complex projects and some of them can’t be guaranteed or predicted with absolute certainty that they can be done, so it’s fully understandable that there can and will be some carry-overs. But I guess an aspect that I wanted to ask about is that, you know, as the implementation of some of these goes ahead and indeed, you know, the Minister or the department finds that, for instance, there is very limited uptake on a call for bidders or the cost of something comes in extraordinarily high, well above anticipated costs, do we have a way...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The bill is quite large, as supps go in this Assembly, and it may be a little, deceiving is the wrong word, of course, but in its inclusion is a very large number of carry-overs, both in cash value and in quantity, from the previous year, Madam Chair. Some $75 million of this is, in effect, for projects that this Assembly has already approved from the previous year or, potentially, even years. These projects are, of course, uncompleted and what the Assembly is doing here is simply reaffirming the money that was unspent from last year can continue to be spent this year...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is quite correct; the service will hopefully be restored much earlier than usual. But the reality is, it's too late for the fuel suppliers here in the Yellowknife region. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has acknowledged there are indeed maintenance issues, and it's starting to think the Merv Hardie has been out of the water for more than four months now, but here we are at the cusp of the season and we're still fixing it. Mr. Speaker, what is the nature of the mechanical and maintenance issues with the Merv Hardie and how long is it going to take them to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly hope we can all count on the optimism that the Minister is projecting about a Monday service date. Mr. Speaker, in some other discussions with folks on this issue, I was told that the Mackenzie River was indeed clear of ice yesterday and could have accepted the…The boat could have been in service very plainly, but we ran into apparently some issues regarding maintenance or inspection of the boat. Could the Minister advise why the Merv Hardie ferry was not in the water yesterday?

Mr. Speaker, you know, again, I want to appeal to the Minister and ask for his commitment to focus not on what’s good for the pipeline project, Exxon Mobil and the other investors; what is good for the Northwest Territories? Will this government finally and aggressively focus on what we need, not what works to the advantage of the pipeline proponents, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, considering the significance of this project to the Northwest Territories, is the Minister, is the government going to be more specific and be more aggressive about the kind of support we would like to see the federal government taking? Of course, there are lots of different options, all of them that make sense in certain areas, but which are the ones that make most sense for us for the long-term future of the Northwest Territories? Is the government going to be taking that case to the federal government and promote our interests in this project, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent, Mr. Jim Peterson, a former president of the NWT Tourism Association and a sports hunting and fishing outfitter, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause