Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he can provide the information on exactly what the actual costs for the Inuvik school project is, the office building in Inuvik and also the school project in Fort Good Hope, if those projects are on cost and, more importantly, if there is a cost overrun, to notify Members of the House. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, again, I would like to thank the Minister for trying to deal with this issue, because this issue is not coming from the tribal council. It is coming from the renewable resource council who are responsible for fishing and harvesting activities. Again, sure you might have a licence from the legal authority. This has been an issue before. They have requested that before they gave you a licence, you had to do a bunch of research. Again, they have put those regulatory bodies on notice that this is going to be an issue next time you have a renewal of your licence in regards to your...
Mr. Speaker, in regards to the contracting process that we use, we use negotiated contracts, sole source, bidding processes, but the project that comes to mind is the project in Inuvik. I know the original estimate when we were first looking on the books was $58 million. Then when they did basically another estimate, it came in at $79 million. The latest estimate is over $100 million. I would like to know, using the school project, is that project on cost, on time and, more importantly, can you state that there will be no cost overruns on this school project in Inuvik? Is that too soon to make...
Mr. Chairman, I believe that is all we are asking, is do an investigation. We don’t have to spend any major dollars. Work with those communities. Present that as an option going forward. At the end of the day if the numbers don’t add up, we know it is not feasible, but at least make the attempt to look at this as an alternative way of providing services to all of the communities in the Northwest Territories in regards to this proposal. All I am asking is if he would consider looking at this as an alternative way of providing services to those communities during the summer months of the year...
Mr. Speaker, infrastructure in the North is a challenge we have to face regardless of the economic and the logistical challenges we face. As a government, back then Class D estimates was a lot of times the way we went. A lot of times we underestimated these projects, but I believe the government has now made a decision to make it mandatory to come forward with a Class C estimate. Again, hopefully that improves our prices. Mr. Speaker, in light of the discussion around the Deh Cho Bridge, I want to make it clear to the public that I do support the Deh Cho Bridge. For $15 million, we should get...
Okay. Turn to page 13-7, department summary. Can I get some direction to defer that page to after consideration of the rest of the detail?
I believe probably the most fundamental foundations for moving on this initiative is going to have government policies, a directive that directs departments to make the change. Like with anything else, anything new, a lot of people are used to simply burning diesel fuel. You put it in the tank, you turn it on and you call the fuel truck next time you need it filled up, but just get people around the idea that we’re going to wean ourselves off of diesel fuel or fossil fuels and start looking at these new initiatives. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, is the government going to be coming...
Page 13-28, information item, lease commitments – infrastructure.
I didn’t think we left.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Community governments must complete the Community Energy Plan by March 31, 2010. The Gas Tax Agreement requires that all community governments complete an integrated community sustainable plan by the same date. Community energy plans are one component that has been considered. All communities in the Northwest Territories must comply with this arrangement.
March 31, 2010, is only a month and a half away. As the information that has been provided by the Minister indicates that only 10 communities have completed this plan out of 33, yet some 23 communities remain to have...