Michael McLeod

I was going to say right up front that we didn’t have any money or resources to allocate to this situation, but it is a serious issue. It’s been raised by a number of sectors of people that live in Hay River and also the Hay River Reserve. We want to follow up on our discussions with the federal government. We are hoping our discussions with the Coast Guard are going to be successful; I can’t say that it is right now. We haven’t had anything confirmed in that area.

We need to bring in the federal government, especially the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. This is their area of responsibility...

I guess several Ministers could have a role to play in the concern that’s being raised by the Member. The fisheries are being impacted, as was stated in her comments. I guess it could fall under ITI. As a potential disaster, it could fall under MACA. NTCL is concerned about the channel there, so I guess that would fall under DOT.

We as a government have had the concern raised to us by the municipality and we have indicated to them that there was some potential programs that we could flag for them to provide that information to them. We’ve also had a meeting with the Member for Hay River North...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to provide Members and the public with an update on the Deh Cho Bridge.

Construction has reached a key milestone with the launch of the truss, a key component of the bridge superstructure. The truss is a continuous steel assembly that connects each of the piers and will eventually carry the concrete deck panels and asphalt driving surface. Launching of the truss is the process of assembling the steel members onshore and then pushing them in a continuous line out from the shore to span the piers. Once the truss is in place the contractor will erect the two...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe the Member has seen any contract from any projects we have across the government. It is not a practice that we provide the information to Regular Members on. We would need the consent of the contractors and, in most situations, the contractors would not agree to it, so that is why we haven’t provided it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to the Premier’s Return to Written Question 16-16(5), I wish to table the following document entitled Cost of Devolution Negotiations, Actual Expenditures.

Also, I would like to table the following document entitled Reports Respecting Benefits Paid to Ministers under the Ministerial Benefits Policy for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Member has raised concerns by the Auditor General that have been responded to. That information is public. That can be drawn down by the Member if he so wishes. I’m not really sure what the Member is concerned about. If it’s optics, well, I don’t know what we would do to change that besides not allowing anybody that works for us, that helps us prepare a document or works for us a resource, to bid on these contracts. That’s really going to lock out a lot of good quality companies and that would be a concern. That would certainly increase our costs. I’d need to see more of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to assume that the Member is referring only to the contracts that fall under Public Works and Services and not the other departments. Mr. Speaker, it’s common practice across the government to confer and hire different companies that specialize in different sectors, different areas, different industries, to provide advice to help with the scoping and drafting of the project. The information shared is restricted to that process, especially if it’s a specific type of need, and there are really pretty rigid rules around how we do that. I don’t think that’s something...

I’m not going to respond to a document that he’s holding right in his hand and reading from and asks me to clarify what he’s reading. Mr. Speaker, the simple answer is we have not engaged in a process to review the system. If there are concerns, if there is a desire by a Member of this House for us to do that, we’ll certainly take that as recommendation. Up to now, it’s been an issue raised by the Member and we can continue that discussion if he so wishes. Thank you.

Maybe the Member can’t tell his right side of the brain to talk to the left side of the brain, Mr. Speaker. There is a fairly sensitive process that we follow to ensure that the information that is shared with a company that is hired by us to help us draft the contract specifications is only relevant to what we need from them. We don’t ask them to provide dollar amounts. We don’t ask them for a lot of different things. There is an appeal mechanism. If there are concerns, I would like to hear from industry. The Member is raising a concern and I’d certainly like to hear more of what he’s hearing...

The holdbacks are usually released upon the deficiencies being dealt with. Thank you.