David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to continue on with some questions that I had earlier. First of all, I had a question about when we were here during the last sitting of the House and it kind of touched a nerve with the Minister of Transportation and that was the fact that ATCON had gotten the contract for $165 million and weren’t bonded to perform that work. I know they have a line of credit. The government had access to a line of credit for ATCON’s work and performance on that job, but I’m just wondering what assurance, and I think I’ve heard the Minister say this, but I want to get...

I think perhaps we’re getting somewhere. I hope people are getting an understanding of why it is that I am hesitant to support this $165 million. I mean, this rock didn’t meet the standards but somebody decided to dump it into the river anyway. What other issues are out there that didn’t meet the standard that are going to come back and get us or have the potential to come back and get us? Obviously if this rock didn’t meet the standards, somebody’s got to be responsible for dumping it off that temporary bridge into the Mackenzie River where most of it was, like I said, of a diameter where it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wasn’t going to get into a history lesson here but perhaps just to go back a little bit, if we look back, and it’s hard… I know the Minister of Transportation said the blame has to be shared around a number of people on this, and if I can just call it like I see it, there are two guys sitting at the table here, both were Members of the previous Cabinet, and if you want to get a little bit of a history lesson, you know, the Finance Minister, former Finance Minister, the Chair of the FMB, and the Minister who would have approved the concession agreement in the dying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously something happened to spook the lenders. I’d like to know if the Minister knows exactly what that was. We had the Minister come before us requesting that the government approve and the Members approve $15 million in a supplementary appropriation to get that money flowing from the lenders. That wasn’t the case. Obviously we are here this week looking at a supplementary appropriation for the full amount. I’d like to ask the Minister why that was and what happened to the lenders in between those two dates that they decided that us in good faith approving $15...

I thank the Minister for that. I guess considering the Government of the Northwest Territories had, or still has, a $165 million ticket out there on the line, I’m surprised that we weren’t more involved early on. I know we probably gave too much slack to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. In hindsight, we probably should have been there. The department should have been there. We should have been watching what was going on there, especially in that first year of construction, and we didn’t.

Again, I am appreciative of the fact that the department has stepped in last year and they continue to...

Formally notified and reality are two different things. I’d like to ask the Minister when the money stopped flowing on this project and when the government first became aware that the construction account from the lending agency was in fact locked up. When did that happen?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few more questions. I know it’s getting late and people want to probably get home and do other things, myself included. I just had a few other questions. I guess the first one going forward is I just want some assurances that the oversight on the site is going to be done by an independent third party and I think that we talked a little bit about this, the Minister and I, in another meeting we had, and I just want to get some assurances from him that all of the quality assurance and quality control there will be of an independent nature and companies performing...

Mr. Speaker, I just want to make sure that good sound decisions are being made on this project. I have always believed that if you are going to do anything, you have to make sure that you are doing it right. Mr. Speaker, this is something that I live by and I am going to hold the government to account on this project. Thank you.

I, again, from what I know, have concerns over some of these deficiencies that were brought to the department’s attention on a number of occasions. That’s what I know. I can’t say it any other way, they were brought to the department’s attention and the department chose not to act on it or the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation chose not to act on these things. That’s what I have been told. Again, I will take the Minister up if he wants to offer me a private briefing sometime and I look forward to that.

One other thing while I have a few seconds here on the clock, I’ve always said this project would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleagues, especially the Premier and Minister of Transportation, are well aware of my questions of the Deh Cho Bridge Project at every turn since becoming a Member of this House in 2003. Mr. Speaker, as much as it might pain some people in this building, I am going to continue to question the project over the course of this special sitting of the House.

Mr. Speaker, during this sitting, I will be seeking clarification on a number of issues. The first is what exactly we have committed to as a government with Ruskin for the remaining work on the project. I want to...