Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, we have put a lot of energy in bridges and upgrading our highways outside of the Deh Cho Bridge. The Deh Cho Bridge, of course, has received most of the attention, but we did a lot of work on the Bear River Bridge, for example, right to the point of where we’re ready to do construction. However, we failed to attract federal investment and the project was priced out of our budgeting ability.

We have, to date, I think, built 39 bridges, mostly in the Member’s riding, so we have put a lot of attention, and, of course, not all of it is recognized and given credit for, but we are...

Right now we still continue to work on some of the Mackenzie Valley bridges through the Building Canada funding. I think we are going to have to see the Deh Cho Bridge come to a conclusion and regroup to see and revisit the concept of P3 to see if that’s still something that the Members of this House would support. Failing that, I guess we would have to wait for the federal government to provide money to build the bridges.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier has already outlined the scrutiny that this project has been under since inception. This motion that has been put forward by the Member is really a call for what already occurs. The Auditor General already conducts an audit of the Deh Cho Bridge Project through the consolidated financial statements. We as a department, as well as other departments, cooperate fully with the Office of the Auditor General as they perform this audit. In the past year we’ve already provided reports and other information requested by their office and will continue to do so.

I think...

Mr. Speaker, so the Member could sleep at night, we will assure him that all the projects are moving forward as we have projected and as we have reported to the Members with our capital planning over the last year and this year. We don’t anticipate any effect as a result of the Deh Cho Bridge. The projects that were carried over will move forward as soon as possible if conditions are permitting and the other contracts are already being considered for awarding too. I think we are going to see a lot of work happening this summer. We should have a good construction year, again depending on rain...

Mr. Speaker, I am checking in my binder to see if I can find that date. Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure the Member that we, in my discussions with our staff -- and I apologize that I don’t have the date on the top of my head -- but in our discussions with our staff, Public Works, we don’t anticipate that there will be any slippage on the time frame. We are working toward the site. We are also working towards schematics and things of that nature, so it is all being moved forward as a package. I can reassure the Member that we will have those decisions made in a timely manner so the project is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did have the opportunity to visit Hay River, along with yourself and Mrs. Groenewegen, to look at one of the potential sites or relocation, providing the hospital project goes ahead with some sites that they require movement of other departments. We had a very good visit. We had a facility that was very attractive. We had indicated at that time that we would provide some staff to do further follow-up in terms of what it would cost, what operating costs are, what kind of land is available and things of that nature. I also had the opportunity to look at a number of...

That cause for concern has been looked at for a couple of years now. Our people have been monitoring the situation. As the Member brought the issue forward to me last year, I had our officials confirm that there is an issue there. They went to the site again and there are plans being made to remedy the situation. We’ll share that information with the Member and provide the reassurance that it’s not going to collapse or that the testing is done to ensure the safety factor will not be a concern anymore.

As we move forward on trying to develop our roads, reconstruct our roads, we also want to improve the amount of chipseal and hardtop that we have on our infrastructure. We know that by having a long-term plan and commitment that, providing it’s feasible, providing it’s viable, providing it’s something that will be durable enough to put on to the Dempster and into the Delta, this will create opportunity. We know, having looked at the southern end of the Territories where we have been doing it for quite a few years now, we have companies here in Yellowknife and in Hay River that are generating a...

Mr. Speaker, sitting down with the municipality we can do right away including the MLA. We will have to work around our schedules. We have done some financial analysis and looked at different options that we have in front of us. I think we can probably rule out the concept of pavement overlay. That is expensive even on the southern parts, even in Alberta. It is a very expensive undertaking. Chipseal we know is something that is relatively cheap compared to pavement. There are other products that are in between, in terms of cost. We have to take a look at that.

Of course, the Member’s riding is...

I have driven on the road, the Mackenzie Valley, all the way to Norman Wells, a beautiful, scenic ride, a smooth ride. I didn’t see any goats, Mr. Speaker. However, it is a nice ride and there are certainly bottlenecks along the route. There are places that a bridge would address a lot of the concern and extend the season.

The Bear River is a challenge every year. It’s an area that has overflow; it’s an area that takes a long time to construct an ice road. There is a very large detour that we have to build annually and it’s costly. So I would like to be able to, at some point, come forward with...