David Ramsay

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...

Mr. Chairman, I’m just wondering if the Minister, and again my whole reason for asking these questions, Mr. Chairman, is to make sure that we are proceeding on this project knowing everything’s that’s out there, knowing where the deficiencies are and, you know, up until today it was the first time I heard the Minister talk about compaction, first time I heard the Minister talk about scour rock, and I’m glad to see that now we’re getting somewhere. I think that’s the level of detail that people… I’d like to know what we’re getting ourselves into here. In that, I mean can the Minister provide...

Is the work going to be fully bonded to the maximum extent or are they just going to have a $1 million bond on a $72 million job? I mean, what are we talking about? They could have a $500,000 bond, for all we know. What’s it going to be? Thank you.

If the Minister knows that the scour rock used on the south side didn’t meet standards, again, I’m having trouble understanding if the quality assurances and quality controls are in place on that project how that rock could end up at the bottom of the river. That’s a pretty fundamental question for me. Does the Minister have pictures of that scour rock that was used? Has he seen pictures of that scour rock? Has the department seen pictures of the scour rock? I do have a number of pictures that I’ll table in the House and that I will share with the Minister. I wanted to make that abundantly...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I take some comfort in the fact that the Premier is talking to the federal Finance Minister. I know the Premier mentioned the fact that I’m a card-carrying Conservative, which is true. Although it’s unusual to bring up party preferences here in this House, the last time I heard that was from our current Finance Minister who had his ABC -- Anybody But Conservative -- campaign going in the run-up to the last federal election. I wonder how that is helping us with our negotiations with the federal government and any other concerns financially that we bring to the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be happy to provide some opening comments on the Supplementary Appropriation No. 2 that’s before us. I’m having a great deal of difficulty with supporting this. I’ll say that up front. I have been critical of the project from the very beginning. I mentioned earlier today in my Member’s statement that I just see one bad decision being compounded by another bad decision. For the life of me I cannot understand why we’re not going to complete an audit of the project. That is going through the books of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, going through all the records of...

I’m just trying to make some sense of how this happens. The money gets turned off in December. The Minister comes before committee the last week of January and tells us everything on the project is going along relatively smoothly. Within two weeks of that meeting we’re informed that the government is looking for a $15 million supplementary appropriation from us and looking for our support for that to in effect loosen up the lenders and get the money flowing again. I’d like to ask the Minister when did the Minister exactly know that there was no money coming from the lenders. I know he says he...