Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the previous contractor had security in the project and the security has been deemed still good. Going forward with the new contractor we have performance bonds for this company also.

I believe that was the response that I provided earlier on the regulations that are being worked on. We haven’t concluded those. It’s something that we have to have in place before the operation of the bridge comes into play. We expect to have the drafting and everything concluded by the summer before that, and it’s been my practice that we provide the information to the Members so that they are well aware of what we are going to be bringing forward and we’ll commit to doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not sure if that’s something we want to start reading off. Do we have that with us? We have the background information. We have looked at their experience, their references and the different individuals that are involved in the project, including the ones, the engineering and the staff that will be working directly for this project, and are quite comfortable that they have the qualifications. We have a package for almost all the companies that are working for us or are signed on as part of this project. We can provide that to the Members.

Mr. Chairman, the project is indeed self-liquidating to a certain extent. Fifty percent of the annual costs will be paid through tolls. There is a portion that we are already paying in terms of operating the ice bridge and the ferry, which we believe now is in excess of $3 million that can be put towards the project and of course there’s a contribution that was committed to by this government. So there is probably three-quarters of the project being financed through existing payments or existing costs and new revenues. Thank you.

The act requires us to keep a detailed accounting of all the revenues that arise from this project and all the expenditures, so that’s something we will be obligated to follow. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, most of the information regarding the deficiencies are all relatively minor. We certainly can assure the Members that we’ll do a complete assessment. That is being done right now as we speak with the new companies that we have involved. They certainly are not going to go out and accept a project that has deficiencies that are serious in nature. We’ve also talked to the companies that have been on the project as a result of some concerns that have been brought forward in the last couple of days. They have reassured us that all repairs that needed to be done were completed and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s a hypothetical question, but at this point we would expect that we would treat it as if it was a cost overrun and it would be recovered and recouped as traffic volumes went up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In response to the comments, some of them being very serious allegations that there has been discrepancies that are not being dealt with, I certainly, as the Premier indicated, would appreciate if that information would be brought to my attention. I would believe that some of the pictures that he’s looking at, some of it we have in our own possession. There is no doubt some deficiencies that we are dealing with, some have been dealt with and some are scheduled to be resolved over the next little while and a scour rock is a deficiency that’s been noted, it hasn’t been paid...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that opportunity. There certainly have been challenges with this project right from the get-go. There have been issues with contractors, challenges with the design that didn’t meet the code. The challenges have been ongoing and I’m not sure if this is what we expected in terms of scenarios. It’s certainly not the one we wanted to be in. However, having said that, we have right now a $15 million cost overrun that we have to accommodate and repay. Now we have to take on this onto our borrowing that will potentially have an impact on our borrowing limit.

I’m quite...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The expectation will be that there is going to be a requirement for payment on the debt, which is interest plus principal and there’s also going to be O and M costs and that will roughly be around $8 million indexed on an annual basis. The equity payment to the Bridge Corporation is not something we have resolved yet, so we can’t give a firm number and the reason we don’t have up to date, today’s traffic volumes, is because we don’t have the 2010 information yet and that hasn’t been compiled. So it will be quite difficult to provide the information that the Member is...