Michael McLeod

We’ve made a number of commitments in this House to provide information and briefings. We will continue to honour that. Once we get all the pieces of this project confirmed and the plans laid out, we will commit to doing that. Thank you.

The Members have requested that we provide more information to the public and the Members have requested that we have better communication. We’re trying to do that. We have informed the Members that we would do a technical briefing. We have worked hard to get it prepared. The information will be provided by our officials, including the deputy ministers. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is some suggestion in that comment. However, Mr. Speaker, we’ve given the information to the Member already. He has it. We could give it to him again. It’s the same briefing we provided to the Members yesterday. Thank you.

We are planning to introduce new licence plates sometime this summer. They are pretty impressive, from what I’ve seen. I’m not aware that we have changed our type of stickers. It’s an issue that will be of concern, of course, as we are going to be issuing new licence plates starting this summer. I will certainly commit to the Member that we will follow it up and see what the concern is, if that’s the case with a lot of people, if that is coming back to us. I personally have not had any problems, but having said that, we’ll follow up with the concern.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s good to see the visitors in the gallery all wearing green. Today I wanted to recognize my sister-in-law Melody, and my little bundle of joy up there that can’t sit still and I don’t think is really interested in what we’re saying, Cooper McLeod. Welcome.

I can see the cause for concern. If it is an issue that has been caused by ourselves as a department and we can find out what the root of it is, we will certainly try to make amends so that people are not burdened by something that is not their fault.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve responded to a lot of different concerns that have been brought forward from the Members of this House, including licence plates and issuing of registration and having more transportation officers on the highways. This is not an issue that has been brought to my attention. This is the first I’m hearing of it. As far as I know, there has been no change to the quality or type of stickers that we’re using. I’d certainly have to follow up on that. It’s not an issue that I was aware of.

Thank you. During the discussion of Committee of the Whole we had made a number of commitments. We certainly committed that we would continue to demonstrate that there is competent management on this project. We would provide clarity and timely information on where the project is at and we will also provide clarity and information on our role as a government and all our trades and people that are involved so that the public knows exactly where this project is at in terms of the timelines and so they will be fully informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the consideration for providing a toll for all people that travel across the bridge is not something that we have looked at as an option. It would have to be a decision of this House. Right now the consideration for recovery on the extra $15 million would be through the revenue that’s raised from tolling the commercial vehicles. We have not had any discussion with any of my Cabinet colleagues or anyone else, for that matter, and that’s something we’ve considered. We’ve tried very hard to keep the commercial toll from increasing and we certainly did not want to burden the...

We don’t have any projects that we charge back government services. The people that are working on these projects are hired to do those jobs and, no, they’re not included in the toll recovery. The $15 million does not include the two positions or the position and a half and things of that nature that are right now part of regular duties. So I guess the short answer to the Member is no, it’s not included in the $15 million. Thank you.