Michael McLeod

Some of this information is available publicly. Our financial audit is done on an annual basis. It’s reviewed by the Auditor General. The information is something we can certainly share. Mr. Speaker, we’ve asked for some committee time to talk about some of the details regarding schedules, regarding budgets and things of that nature. I believe we’ve managed to secure some time so we can have an opportunity to sit down and look at some of these things in depth, including the risk matrix and things of that nature that maybe will provide some comfort to the Members with further detail. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, we do have status reports that are compiled on a daily basis by the different companies that we have. We also do our own. We do it on a weekly and monthly basis. We certainly can provide a reconciliation of where the expenditures are versus the construction schedule. Mr. Speaker, we are a little over 80 percent, moving towards 85 percent of our expenditures, of our budget being spent, and we’re probably at the same level with our construction schedule. So roughly a little more than 80 percent of our budget is spent and a little more than 80 percent of our contract schedule is...

Yes, but, Mr. Speaker... Mr. Speaker, that’s correct, but if there are any issues that arise that are attributed to something we’ve done or that are under our responsibility, then we would have to absorb those costs. Thank you.

Thank you. It’s a difficult situation we’re in. We have our contractors that are listening to this discussion, we’ve already been contacted by the contractors raising concerns over some of the Member’s comments that are in the contract. There’s a proprietary issue that we’re dealing with here. These issues are dealt with in the contract. I’m not in a position to disclose it at this time, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have to reassure the Member that these issues were things that were taken into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A diversified economy providing opportunities to all communities and regions, along with sustainable, vibrant, safe communities are the two goals of this Legislative Assembly. An all-weather highway running the length of the Mackenzie Valley will be a major step in achieving those goals. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to do work to prepare for the future construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway to Tuktoyaktuk. Since I last updated this Assembly on the highway, we made significant progress.

Through the government’s efforts, we have secured the...

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, if there was any potential loss of revenue due to the contract going past the completion date, we would seek recovery on that. Thank you.

The Auditor General identified the risk matrix as being weak. It didn’t cover some areas that we consider as low. There’s also been concern from the Auditor General that the wording itself was too general when we used the best efforts or best practices and those types of terms, she figured that we should have it word-specific to an actual response, Mr. Speaker.

We have a contract, we have a plan to deal with any issues that come forward and there may be issues that are unforeseen, but for the most part, Mr. Speaker, we’ve engaged risk management experts to put this plan together, they’re the...

Certainly, Mr. Speaker, it’s our practice to work with communities and in some cases we’ve been able to combine efforts and lower the cost of chipsealing. In some cases we’ve actually stepped in and provided some of the technical expertise that the community was lacking. We’d certainly want to sit down well in advance of this project moving forward, to have that discussion and see if there’s any way that the community can take advantage of the work that’s being done in the area. Thank you.

Thank you. As we come to the end of the season and the commitment this coming year, we need to focus on the additional stretch of road on Highway No. 6. Highway No. 6 is 90 kilometres long. It’s going to take further investment and we recognize it’s going to be difficult to commit to putting all the dollars in the budget over a short period of time. So we’ve decided that we have to put this in the needs for the upcoming budget or the new budget, the new government, and we have identified that it’s going to need roughly $15 million over the next five years to conclude the work on this road. So...