David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was about a year ago or just over a year ago when I stood up in this House a number of times asking the government questions about the Opportunities Fund and how it was that they came to make a decision to lend $34 million out of that fund. What that did was to raise expectations from around the Territory for other businesses that wanted to get access to some of these dollars for their own pursuits.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance, I’ve got a number of questions for him today, but I’d like to ask the Minister why we haven’t made any decisions on the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the infrastructure investment strategy, I’m just wondering, given the troubles we’ve had with some partners, you know, and I never have said that we shouldn’t partner with or look for partners where it makes sense. I think if you look at the federal government, the City of Yellowknife, the Municipality of Tuk and some others, I mean, we’ve got some good cases where we’ve gone into partnerships with people who have brought something to the table. Mr. Chairman, I’m wondering if the Department of Transportation has learned anything on the partnership they had with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My apologies. I inadvertently missed a portion of this, so I am going to read it in again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When might the Regular Members finally find out from this government what it intends to do with the remainder of that Opportunities Fund?

I don’t want the Minister to be quick to criticize my committee for sitting on this for five months. It’s been a year and these guys have not come up with a plan on the balance of that fund. I’d like to ask the Minister if the decision to lend the $34 million last year changed the way the federal government looks at the fund, now wanting us to book that whole entire fund as debt. I’d like to ask that question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about the disposition of the Opportunities Fund, a fund Members will recall was used to give out a $34 million loan just over a year ago to Discovery Air. In talking about the decision to lend that money I don’t want to relive that whole debate today, but Discovery Air did make some commitments to this government that I believe need to be followed up on.

First, they were to relocate their head office from London, Ontario, to Yellowknife, which I understand is in the works. How come it took over a year for that to happen? Does the move include the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a few opening comments on MACA. I guess a few good things to say. I’ve been impressed with the amount of money that’s going towards youth officer positions and also to the youth. I know Mr. Beaulieu has done a great deal in championing the cause for youth.

The one thing I just want to throw out there, this Youth Development Strategy, I wouldn’t want to see the department, you know, as important as youth is, every community is created differently, obviously, and I don’t know if you’re going to get the desired effect by going to a Youth Development Strategy. I...

I’d like to ask the Minister, with all these things outstanding, how can the Minister with any certainty be sure that $15 million is enough to cover all the bases on this project?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That company is also familiar with the fact that the Government of the Northwest Territories today is up against the wall. They know we’re in trouble with this project. We’re negotiating from a bad, bad position. Again, I’ve talked to people. This is unprecedented for a government in Canada to go to a sole-sourced contract on a bridge like this. Unprecedented. I’d like to ask the Minister who exactly makes up this new project management team. I’d like to know that.

The next question I have for the Minister, and we’ve talked about March 1st being an important date, I want to get back to some of the earlier questions I had on why the superstructure didn’t go to tender. People I’ve talked to in the industry and other companies that are out there in western Canada that could have bid on this work tell me that they could have had numbers into this government inside of 30 days.

I’d like to ask the Minister again, how come the project, the superstructure, the second half of this project did not go to a tender?