Bob Bromley

Briefly, at our recent meeting the Minister took these issues, as I say, very seriously and committed to see how this situation can be improved. I’m grateful for this commitment and look forward to his proposals. Let’s all look at what’s working and what isn’t in our aboriginal language support programs and improve where needed. I look forward to reports of good progress on these issues. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to carry on a little bit on the fiscal environment that I was mentioning earlier. I want to make sure I have some things right here. Our annual payments will be about $8 million per year, including a net of about $2 million new dollars each year. After a five-year period we have federal support for extra debt. We will have paid about $40 million for a reduction in the principal of about $10 million, leaving about $150 million in principal debt on the books. Over this same period we’ll reduce our current debt, which is estimated at $215 million at the end of...

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. So in my little pea brain, the scour rocks, if they’re meant to protect the piers and they don’t it would ultimately be a safety issue. Is that a correct impression? I guess it’s particularly the safety issues which ultimately everything with this bridge seems to be, I think.

We’re developing a piece of infrastructure over a large river in an extreme environment. Are there any other safety issues that we should know about? I keep hearing about the quality of the bores and stuff like this. The Minister is looking into that. Is there anything else we...

Okay, Mr. Chairman. So I can’t get that clarification before, so I’ll speak in general terms here.

From what I’ve seen of the fiscal frameworks and projections, they were developed with densely rose-tinted glasses. They include projections that we’ve never achieved, to my knowledge. I’m wondering how many years we will be over our debt limit. I know that what was indicated in those frameworks is clearly not reality.

It speaks to the fundamental aspect that we need to know. I think we’re boxed in. We need to do this. But the most important thing to me is that we do it with a full appreciation of...

I appreciate those comments from the Premier. I personally believe there are huge implications to the services and infrastructure that this government can and will be able to contemplate because of this. My last question is: what are the implications to the government if we decline this proposed appropriation bill for $165 million?

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I quite buy that. I am just wondering if we would have been able to take on a project like this if we had already been carrying this much debt and does that not get through to the Premier in terms of what some of the possible limitations he might consider as consequences of this project.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Dick Abernethy, father of my colleague here and resident of Weledeh. Welcome, Dick.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In honour of Aboriginal Languages Month I raise a few issues regarding not just a preservation but the growth and development in youth of aboriginal languages.

I met recently with two of my constituents and the Minister of ECE. The Minister reacted very positively to suggestions that are now being considered for action. The first major issue is the timely ability to get training of professional interpreters and translators. An interpreter/translator course is offered by Aurora College, but only two course credits are available each year. Because the full course complement is...

It’s interesting that the Minister mentions the budget this year. It was up over 7 percent. I think it was 7.5 percent, something like that. The projections the Cabinet has come up with here were 1 percent. I’m wondering how that fits with what the Premier has just said. The projections for next year are 2 percent. That’s exactly what I mean by unrealistic. If we’re going to go into this with those kind of ridiculous figures, we’re looking for real serious trouble. This $165 million on top of a 7 percent increase this year would equate to something like a 20 percent increase. This is not...

Thank you to the Minister for that. I’m really trying to develop some confidence here and I know this Minister knows that full and complete information is best. That’s what helps us develop a good relationship and confidence in the project. I’d appreciate it if that could continue.

I don’t want to pick away at this, but all things are completed and signed off except for and then there’s these exceptions that we always hear. I’m waiting to when we can really say that what we have on the ground is complete and safe and thorough and completed and paid for and we don’t have any liens or complaints...