Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to recognize my wife, Melody McLeod, and Auntie Germaine Michel. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Between myself and the Minister of Transportation, I’m sure that we can find a way to meet with the principals. The problem is going to be finding a legal way if there is going to have to be some financial restitution because of the fact that we’re in an election process. That’s why I’m saying it would have to be looked at as part of the 18th Assembly. But we are quite prepared to meet with Rowe’s Construction. We have said that, and as I said, there is still an ongoing process.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a bit of a drawn out story, but as everybody knows, Rowe’s was working as a subcontractor to ATCON, who was the contractor to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, and when ATCON went into bankruptcy, Rowe’s submitted five claims to the receiver and also to the Department of Transportation. The receiver who was looking after ATCON’s bankruptcy action did not evaluate Rowe’s Construction claims as there was no evidence of a formal contract between ATCON and Rowe’s. The legal review by DOT and our legal division concluded that the Government of the Northwest Territories...

After all, we are a responsible, transparent government, so we would be very pleased to do that.

I should point out that a fair and reasonable resolution process is still underway involving the Department of Transportation and Rowe’s Construction. We still don’t have any evidence of any formal contracts. We also know that there are deficiencies in some of the work that was done that we have to reach agreement on, so there is still ongoing work to be done. I expect that it will continue into the 18th Assembly in order to look for a resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government and the Department of ECE takes the concerns raised by the school representatives very seriously, and of course, our children and our students’ safety is of utmost concern. For that reason, we are working closely with the Aklavik DEA as well as Public Works, and certainly, we will facilitate that work gets done to deal with this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Jackson Lafferty will be absent from the House today to attend a funeral. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Public Works consulted with ECE and the DEA. We have received confirmation that the hamlet is agreeable to establish some off-street parking in conjunction with the proposed drainage improvements. Now it’s a question of the timing. As the Member indicated, winter is coming, so we will follow up to see and to try to make sure that the work is done on a timely basis.

We first became aware of this issue in the summer of 2014 when the hamlet raised concerns with potential public safety issues. When ECE met with the DEA in February of 2015, the hamlet indicated that they would use signage to restrict parking in the area around the school, and they put up appropriate signage to that effect. But to fix the problem longer term, the hamlet has advised that they need to do some drainage improvements, so we see the solution as being part of that, and certainly, we will follow up with them to see if we can get the work done this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Ted Blondin, the chair of the Tlicho Community Services Agency. Welcome to the Assembly.