Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Chairman, the committee today wishes to consider Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009. The Minister has provided his opening comments, and we would like to proceed with general comments. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two pages that have been serving in our Legislature this week who are from Hay River South. I would like to thank them for a job very well done. They are Mikaela Muller and Danelle Stelmack. Thank you, girls.

I’d like to recognize two residents of Hay River South: Heather Copewell, who is here awaiting the arrival of a new baby; and my constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan.

As I have said on numerous occasions, both in the media and in this House and at other venues, as Regular Members, we have found it very difficult to obtain materials with reference to the Deh Cho Bridge project. I feel the Premier and the government have in fact portrayed our access to the contrary.

The concession agreement is something we have asked for on a number of occasions and only received an embargoed-type copy of it last Thursday. We were then able to look at a copy. When we finished looking at it, we must return it to the Clerk of Committees when we depart the room — I mean, it has...

Mr. Chairman, your committee would like to consider Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009, in Committee of the Whole today.

I would like to ask the Premier if he would share that valuation that the FMB comes up with, with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation as a next step, to see if they would like to respond to that dollar value.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask questions on SFA today, but I guess I’ll just have to ask questions on the Deh Cho Bridge instead.

Mr. Speaker, lots of e-mails have been coming into my e-mail box, and I want to sincerely thank people for taking the time to share their opinions and their questions on this very significant piece of capital infrastructure. I encourage that. Whether it is pro or against, I am very interested in hearing people’s input. I also want to thank people who phoned in this morning and took the trouble to become involved through a phone-in radio show on CBC.

Mr. Speaker...

Mr. Speaker, the cost of attending post-secondary institutions continues to rise. With the exception of funding for travel, our Student Financial Assistance Program does not have any mechanism to review these costs on a regular basis and adjust funding levels available to students. For example, Mr. Speaker, the University of Alberta has announced that for the 2008-2009 academic year, the cost of tuition will go up by 4.6 per cent, and the cost to stay in student residence will go up by 8.75 per cent. This is fairly representative of what occurs every year at most southern post-secondary...

I rise on a point of order under Rule 492(1) of Beauchesne’s Parliamentary Rules and Forms, which states that a Minister is not at liberty to read quotes for dispatch or other state paper not before the House without being prepared to lay it on the Table. This is in context to the Premier’s response to my questions yesterday when I was asking questions about the concession agreement.

On page 23 of unedited Hansard, Mr. Roland referred to eligible and ineligible costs that could affect different firms involved and also spoke to issues of guaranteed price, fixed-price contracts, refund of...

I move that we report progress.

Motion carried.