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?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I disagree with the Minister on this. I really think that, like I said, we owe it to the public, we owe it to the Members of this House. The project is in such a mess that I think we’ve got to look for a win where we can get it. I think we could have gotten a win, given the current economic climate in western Canada and getting other companies out there to bid on this project, so I disagree with the Minister on that.

I’d like to finally ask the Minister, what is he negotiating this contract with this one company on when, you know, I haven’t heard that the...

Mr. Speaker, the industry folks I’ve talked to say that it’s unprecedented in this country for a project of this size to be negotiated with one company. In fact, I know our time is limited but, Mr. Speaker, it would appear to me that the other thing that’s unlimited is our ability to spend money.

Mr. Speaker, I think we’ve spent enough on this project. I think the Minister and this government should duly and rightfully go to the marketplace and get the best price for the remainder of the work on the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I don’t care if it takes six months. I don’t care if it takes a year. If...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to continue trying to make some sense of the mess that is the Deh Cho Bridge Project. It was interesting to hear the Transportation Minister state in a media interview on Friday with CBC that finally the government admits in some fashion that it went ahead with the project despite a cost-benefit analysis that clearly indicated that the government could expect a $53 million negative benefit from the bridge at $165 million. Throw in at least another $15 million and you have a project that will have a negative cost to this government and Territory of $70...

I appreciate the Minister’s response. I guess the last question I’d have is whether or not the Minister understands that, as I said earlier, for a government project which -- let’s not fool ourselves; it has become a government project -- it’s unprecedented for work of this nature on a project like this in this country of Canada to be sole sourced, that this is completely unprecedented, Mr. Speaker, the way this project is moving forward. Unprecedented. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll continue on with these questions. This is obviously, for all intents and purposes, a government project now. We’ve taken it on lock, stock, and barrel by the looks of things. I’d like to ask the Minister, when he talks about contracts that are outstanding, what are we waiting to sign? Are we signing this project management team up to a contract? If that contract hasn’t been signed when is it going to be signed and who is it going to be signed with? I think this is a public government and we’re talking about public funds. The Minister should be able to stand up and...

Mr. Speaker, I am just wondering why it has gotten to this stage, why something wasn’t done further in the past. We should have done something about this a long time ago. I would like to ask the Minister, is it going to cost the Government of the Northwest Territories anything to remove the players from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and that former project management team? Are we going to be paying anything for that? Thank you.