David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, February 18, 2010, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that the appointments to standing committees of the following Members be revoked: Mrs. Jane Groenewegen, Member for Hay River South, to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure; Mrs. Jane Groenewegen, Member for Hay River South, to the Standing Committee on Government Operations; Mr. David Krutko, Member for Mackenzie Delta, to the Standing Committee on Social Programs; Mr. Jackie Jacobson...

I’d like to ask the Minister what the government’s plans are in the immediate future for the remainder of that Opportunities Fund. If we’re not making any money from the Opportunities Fund and we’re actually paying an administration fee of 7 percent, what are we doing here? Why don’t we just give the money back if it’s going to be booked against our debt?

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 apologize if it sounds the same. March 1st is the key date that I wanted to put out there. If the government and the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation knew the problems before March 1st, like I said, it would take 30 days to go to the marketplace, get some pricing for the superstructure. That didn’t happen and now our backs are against the wall. We’re going to negotiate a contract that we obviously won’t be able to get out of. We won’t have any latitude. There’s nobody else bidding on this work. It’s one company. Again, I think given what’s happened with this project and the history of it, at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few more questions for the Minister of Transportation pertaining to the Deh Cho Bridge. I listened to the Minister when I was talking about the design earlier. The government has always said that the design was essentially completed. It has been essentially complete for six years now. According to the Minister, most of the components of the redesign and the design work are concluded but not all of the components are concluded. I am wondering if the Minister could elaborate a little bit more. Are we setting ourselves up for more cost overruns on this project...

Mr. Speaker, obviously the government hasn’t learned much. It negotiated a contract with ATCON, allowed the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation to negotiate a contract with ATCON, and we all know where that’s gotten us. I want to ask the Minister, who ultimately calls the shot on whether this project would go to tender and which project team is doing this. Is it the former Deh Cho Bridge Corporation project management team or is it our project management team, Mr. Speaker? Because I’d like to know that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got some more questions today for the Minister of Transportation. It goes back to my Member’s statement talking about the Deh Cho Bridge Project. Obviously the government’s coming back looking for another $15 million because of the increased costs on the second half of the project, the superstructure, as it’s called. I’d like to ask the Minister today why exactly the government, who is project manager now, is negotiating with one company. Why hasn’t this gone out to tender, given the cost of this superstructure? Why are we negotiating with one company?