David Ramsay

I believe it would just be through commitment and willingness to take on that agreement.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have done a benefit analysis. We could look at getting that for the Member and other Members as well. The Member is correct; there are a number of those benefits and they have to be quantified. We’d certainly like to help get that information to the Members.

Mr. Speaker, that would be pages 9 and 10 of the briefing that was provided, the deck that was provided to the committee. The Member is well aware of what the risks are. We laid them all out on the table two weeks ago.

As the project moves forward, we will continue to lay out the risks associated with this project. For a project that’s close to $300 million, there will be some risks. Thank you.

We continue to work toward a business case, and I think that’s where we’re trying to get to. This is discussed in the Airport Development Plan. It outlines what the Member is talking about today. As far as planning, a lot of that would take place under corporate services or the commercial development section of the airports division, so that money the Member talks about would be contained in those units inside the department. But, again, we have to get a business case to make something like this happen.

Dredging remains a responsibility of the federal government. I see our role as being one that continues to push the federal government to reinstate a program like they had prior to 1994 when they had a multi-million dollar dredging program here in the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned to the Member earlier, even a small-scale dredging program is going to cost somewhere between $2 million and $3 million. Full-scale, you’re looking at probably $12 million to $15 million for a full-scale dredging program. Those are capital dollars that today we just do not have, and again, it’s not currently...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 6-17(4), I wish to table the following document, entitled Mackenzie Valley Winter Road.

Mr. Speaker, it would have been a year worth of tolls on the bridge. It would have been a year’s worth of interest paid on that money which would have well exceeded the $7.6 million the Member talks about. That bridge is open. Again, it’s serving the public of the Northwest Territories doing what it was supposed to do and intended to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The public in the Northwest Territories, the transportation companies, everybody has access to the Deh Cho Bridge. It has been open since November 30th. That is a great benefit to the residents here in the Northwest Territories. We got the bridge open on November 30th of 2012. Had we chosen a different path as the Member suggests, we would still be in court, the bridge wouldn’t be open and we’d still be asking ourselves many questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right is deputy minister of Transportation, Mr. Russell Neudorf and to my left is the assistant deputy minister of DOT, Mr. Daniel Auger.