Jane Groenewegen

I withdraw the remarks. I do apologize. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier did not identify who is signing these documents on behalf of the G.N.W.T., and he doesn’t seem too familiar with what they are, anyway.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, in case I don’t get a chance to ask any more questions, I want to let the record show that today, February 21, 2008, I sat in this Chamber and said that this process has not done justice to due diligence and to the people of the Northwest Territories. It has put them at undue risk.

My question for the Premier here today is: will he endeavour to find out…? We’re going to leave here now, but I want to know...

Mr. Speaker, now that we have established that, in fact, the G.N.W.T. is bearing some of the risks — if something goes wrong, all of the risk — for this project, I’d like to ask the Premier — and he’s the Finance Minister, so he should know this — how is this liability being reflected in the records of the G.N.W.T.? Because as everyone knows, we have a legislated debt limit of $500 million.

This is the last day of the sitting of this particular Legislature, and true to form, I want to talk about the Deh Cho Bridge.

Mr. Speaker, I want to summarize once again for people what has been provided to us in terms of information and responses to our very good and valid questions. We don’t ask these questions for fun; we ask these questions because we are the conduit for the public to become aware of the government. If we’re not going to have this debate on the floor of the House, well then, to me, really, you might just have appointed an administrator to take over running the Northwest...

I move that we report progress.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, and they are in regard to the Deh Cho Bridge project.

At least three working days ago the Premier said he was going to have FMBS pull some numbers together which might give us an idea of what it would cost our government to exit the Deh Cho Bridge agreement. He made reference to having that information “in a couple of days.” I'd like to know how close we are. How is the Premier intending to share that information with us?

Mr. Speaker, in view of the many pressing needs of the people of the Northwest Territories for everything from better education, to homes and houses in our communities, to health services — we have no doctors going into Nunakput, we heard today — in view of all those pressing needs, does the Premier not think that he has a duty to very clearly tell people, before we commit to it, that this government was entering into an obligation and a liability for $165 million?

Mr. Speaker, with this being Education Week, I, along with several of my colleagues, would like to acknowledge the educators of our Territory. In particular, I would like to recognize those who invest their skills and energy to educate the students of Hay River.

These weeks set aside to recognize specific professions are a good idea. However, if we are to truly respect and recognize our teachers, we could most sincerely do that by ensuring that our schools and their staff are adequately resourced to make the most positive impact possible in the education tasks of our children.

To that end, I...

Mr. Speaker, it is unfathomable that this Premier can say we should have a debate on one simple question alone: do we support this project or not? How could we possibly say whether we support the project or not if we did not have access to the details of it? That's like saying, “I'll buy a house, and I won't look at it or inspect it, and I won't understand any of the terms of the financing, but I'll just….” It is “Do I want a house, or don't I want a house?” That's how simply he’s putting the question.

And to the fact that, yes, we do have the information — yes, we do have it now, after the...

Mr. Speaker, the Members on the opposite side are putting words…. They are adding words. They are embellishing this. They are using things like “head on a platter,” “lying.” I never said lying.

I stood on a point of order to the fact that the Premier was offering…. He was misleading the House with the information he was giving. So if they want to describe that in whatever way they want to, that is what I said. And that is what I will set out to prove.