Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, we did commit to providing correspondence to the Member. I apologize if that hasn’t happened. My information tells me that we have had some discussions on jurisdictions. We have had some discussion with some of the NGOs. We have to commit to have that information compiled and provided to them. I don’t have that all with me today. Thank you.

This project, without a doubt, has had its share of challenges. We have continually worked with all the players, all the people involved in this project, and we have reviewed the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and their responsibilities. We’ve also reviewed and looked at the contractors and sub-contractors. We’ve also at the end of last season, and we’d like to do this again, sat down and brought all the people involved with a facilitator to look at what we possibly could have done better. We’ve had some good discussions on how we can change our relationships. The short answer to the Member’s...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking a question that should be directed to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. Our involvement and our agreement with that company requires an equity portion be invested in this project. They have so far been able to commit to a portion of it; roughly half of what the agreement was involving. They have now, as the Member has stated, no longer a partner that was covering the rest. I believe, and I would have to check with them, that they are now seeking a new partner and looking at options of how they can come up with the rest of the money, including talking to the...

Maybe the Member didn’t hear what I said. I did indicate that we did have an approved design in place that required further testing. So we did have a design at the time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we expect to have a contractor in place. There are a number of contractors that have come forward. There are some serious negotiations. We have some preliminary numbers that we are looking at for the Bridge Corporation and ourselves are looking at. We are quite confident that we are going to resolve that and have an agreement by some time later early in this new year. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of unknowns in this project, as we speak. The Bridge Corporation is negotiating with a contractor about price until sometime later on this month. It will continue to be ongoing until we have an agreement in place.

Of course, there may be termination fees that more than likely will come forward from the contractor that the Bridge Corporation couldn’t make a positive agreement with that we will probably have to deal with. There are still some outstanding claims that we don’t have the numbers on. Mr. Speaker, our goal is to include all of the issues that I mentioned...

We feel that the bridge will be constructed with the price that we had indicated earlier and we are trying to stay on budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the gong show the Member speaks of is only in some people’s eyes. I am very interested to see why he’s concerned about my being positive on this project would be a concern.

Mr. Speaker, this project was brought forward with a design in place with a caveat that further testing had to be done. That was done and approved. There needed to be some changes. The designer of the original bridge was no longer in place and a new team came into place and indicated that there could be some changes made that would result in savings and we proceeded on that basis. Things...

Yes, Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier in my response, we have inserted our staff and we are participating in all aspects of discussions on this project. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have taken more of a hands-on approach through our resources and have people involved with all the different activities that are taking place, all the different discussions and those negotiations. As we develop and move forward on settling and coming to a final price on this project, we incorporated some requirements that needed to be addressed, including rolling in the cost of some of the claims and including the termination fees as we move forward. We would like to have all the different loose ends tied up and be able to come forward with some confidence to the Members and...