Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, the fact that the Government of the Northwest Territories would backstop this project has been known from the early days of the fact that the act was being discussed. That is why an act was put in place, because under existing processes, it would be very difficult to deal with a project of this nature. The fact that we're trying to get P3 money from the federal government, to try to help this project along….

We realize, and I would be negligent in my duty if, looking at the numbers, standing up and giving the message to the people of the Territories, “We're going to have to live...

Mr. Speaker, if that could work. As the Member said, Friday. No. In fact, I've been having the department try to pull all this stuff together.

There are a number of factors that come in there that are hard to quantify, and that's been some of the difficulty. For example, if we as an Assembly were to decide to shut this down, what kind of domino effect could happen? That's been the problem area of trying to put this together.

I instructed them this morning, as well as through the Executive, to review what we know is on the ground and what our position is, and then just highlight what the other...

Mr. Speaker, the facts have been out on the table for, I would say — at least the latest increases — close to a year.

During the last government, when the project that we've heard so much about…. When the act was put in place and talked about a $55 million to $70 million project, it is now identified, and was identified in the 15th Assembly, as $165 million.

The government’s fiscal piece of that is the money from the ferries and ice crossing. In fact, the additional money required was made public — the $2.28 million — before any agreements were signed. Those fundamental pieces are there, have...

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that right now there is a Minister who has that responsibility and does report back to cabinet as a whole. We do have a ministerial level — that level of contact — working with the organizations.

If the Member’s asking about changing it, that’s something that in we do our planning around how we work in government. That’s something that can be taken into consideration.

Definitely, after going through this process, I think the Government of the Northwest Territories…. If we’re going to venture out beyond the typical tender or a fee process we normally go through, we will have to come up with a specific policy for dealing with projects of this nature.

For example, I’ve talked about the Mackenzie Valley Highway. There’s hydro potential in the North. None of those would be able to be done within our existing confines. Realizing what we’ve had to deal with through this process, I would absolutely agree. We need to develop an absolutely clear process so everybody...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this whole scenario I’ve provided much information to the questions in this House: the dollar values attached, who is at risk, the fact of agreeing with the Members that, as the G.N.W.T., we are in fact backstopping this. But the banks are lending the money. They are at risk of lending the money to a project that is a go or no-go. So that’s not misleading the House, Mr. Speaker. That was stating a fact.

There are additional facts to this: that, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, as stated publicly in this House, this process is in place and that we as the...

Mr. Speaker, maybe I’ll ask a question back. The fact is that this Assembly feels it hasn’t had the opportunity to debate this in its full length. Concession agreements, schedules, projects that we do, whether they’re $4 million, $40 million or $80 million contracts for infrastructure we have in our communities, or leases — we have 10year leases on infrastructure for office spaces, whether in this city or other communities — go through a process but don’t get reviewed by committee on a contract-by-contract scenario.

In this case, Members are asking for a line-by-line review. We’ve provided that...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct in the fact that any loan guarantee established falls under the authority of the FMB. The process also lays out the notification of Members, and that process is followed.

The reference I made to a potential supplementary appropriation dealt with one piece, a small piece, of that, but all the information would have been made available. I'll have to confirm that. I'm going on memory at this point. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, when they came forward with requests for increases, they did have to justify why we would want to do that and why we would carry it forward to the Assembly for approvals on supplementary requirements.

You can go back to the supplementary appropriations to see when loan guarantees were put in place or increased through operations of the House.

The actual work done was bridge design, looking at those areas. No doubt, lots of lawyers’ fees on the negotiations process with banks and so on.

There is a list. We know what they were working on. We were knowledgeable of that. When they...

Mr. Speaker, they are, as I stated, part of the process of finalizing the agreement with the lawyers reviewing it. Signatures would need to be accepted from all the parties involved. The lending organizations, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Transportation, as well as Finance, would be required to sign off a number of the schedules. I’m not sure of the exact amount, but this is the follow-through from what was laid out there. We’re following through the process that’s already in place.