Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, as laid out in an earlier question, there is a number of factors that come into play when we look at trying to limit the liabilities that we could be party to. Some of the shared risk here is between the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, the construction company as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories because we’re seen as the backstop to this project, as Members have correctly pointed out.

So those liabilities, again, include, for example, an independent engineer to audit the construction parameters of this as well as some of the eligible costs that may be covered, or...

This is, as I’m informed, an increase in the court circuits that are being held throughout the year that were planned for this fiscal year. I believe the Minister of Justice would be able to give more detail to the Members. If we can, Mr. Chairman, give the Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty, an opportunity to provide a little more detail.

We do have to recognize this culvert was put in place in 1973. The department has been doing its maintenance. It was on an annual basis. Based on my understanding, those large culverts are looked at for their safety. This one is felt to have gone through collapse because of the water flow situation that eroded underneath that specific facility. I would have to look into whether or not our insurance program would cover us off in this area.

Mr. Chairman, again, the process is one that has been used for a number of budget cycles now. I’ll have to correct that: it’s not only the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that has done this. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment also has infrastructure contributions, and that would be, for example, the schools and the education authorities here in the capital.

The Member will have plenty of opportunity during the business plan stages of our budget development process to work with the Minister Responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. Right now, as identified and as structured in the Northwest Territories, the headquarters of the main Aurora College is situated in Fort Smith with campuses in Inuvik and Yellowknife as main campuses, and then we have smaller facilities in other communities. Thank you.

Maybe I haven’t kept the Transportation portfolio, but specifically on that request, my information is that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has done that work in an evaluation of the type of skill sets they will need and are looking at what the people will need to help build this bridge.

Mr. Chairman, this process, as the Members have discussed, we would gladly look at it if the committee were to make recommendations in this area. Then we could put the energy into it. Otherwise this process will continue to be used during the business planning process. There’s opportunity for Members to make recommendations and committees to make recommendations in this area when we get into the business planning stage.

Mr. Chairman, this project here works through the federal government. They’ve established the Canada Health Infoway process, which is established as an independent, non-profit organization launched by Health Canada in 2001. They originally started with $1.2 billion in that area.

The Department of Health and Social Services has been working on our own system but also adapting to what has been brought forward as a national initiative so that we can — as we’ve had patients going out to other jurisdictions — share information on the same platforms. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, as I’d stated earlier along the lines of this area of the use of supplementary appropriations, it will be something that, as the 16th Assembly, we will have to work with, to work around reducing the use of these items. It would be, as well, Members who would help in that in the sense of policing the use of that by continuing to send the message back through Ministers and departments about proper planning. The fact is that, in our current fiscal situation we have to come to the realization that there’s only so often you can go back to the well before the bucket comes back dry.

Mr. Chairman, I think the comment about looking at, in a sense, bringing the services to the Northwest Territories is a good one. And we’ll get that information, again, put together with the rest of the commitments we’ve made in this area.

As well, we have to realize that in past practice when we’ve in a sense repatriated services to the North, it’s not always ended up being less expensive than the current way of doing business. But this looks like it could be a good candidate. Thank you.