Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to certainly have a drive with me on the Sahtu goat trail there and look at our bridges and see what type of repairs and work that needs to be done on them.

Mr. Speaker, again, if the department then would look at the P3 policy -- I know it’s somewhere within the House here, in the committee -- in terms of having that established. We’ve certainly got to look at some creative and innovative ways to start building some of these major bottlenecks into the Sahtu region or the Gwich’in or to the Deh Cho, Nahendeh, sorry, to...

If we stay on target and time frame, the completion of Deh Cho Bridge will be November 2011. I hope between now and 2011 the department can give some serious consideration to looking at the other bridges and thinking outside the box, as the Minister says, and being innovative and creative. How do we put together some bridges like the Peel, the Bear, and Liard bridges that need to be looked at? We still need to have a P3 concept proposal in front of us to approve it and go ahead with it. Certainly we have learned a lot there. I’m just asking the department if they would begin some initial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People in the Northwest Territories have been dreaming about building a bridge over the Mackenzie River for the last 50 years. A bridge will provide year-round, reliable access to the North Slave and eventually down the Mackenzie Valley. Toll fees will provide revenues.

Every week, all year round, Buffalo Airways flies loads of freight, fresh food and mail up to the communities in the Sahtu from the Yellowknife Airport. All of that will cross the new bridge, so I know the new bridge will be good for the Sahtu.

In a year and a half we have fulfilled the dream of having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay, for the motion. I will be supporting the motion. I want to say that in the history of this Deh Cho Bridge Project that the federal government wasn’t there due to other things that they had to deal with. We certainly want to involve them in this project here; however, they had their own reasons for not stepping forward and helping out with the start-up of this whole project here. They had dealt with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and the community of Fort Providence and they worked with them on some equity issued there, so in a sense they did come...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister about other legal things that could be associated with the Deh Cho Bridge Project, some of the unresolved matters. For example, ATCON is in receivership and there may be claims outstanding that may be unresolved issues with the bridge. Is the GNWT likely to become involved in any legal actions related to the project? What matters might be unresolved that might cost the GNWT money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. I look forward to that discussion with the Members after he’s had some discussions with the Minister of Finance Canada.

Mr. Chair, in terms of the time frame to complete the bridge, we’re looking at 2011, in terms of this time frame and the amount of work that it is required, we aren’t too sure how things are going to unfold next week or the day after. We’re under a time frame. There are certain consequences of not meeting the time frame. In his good judgement and estimation, can the Minister of Transportation say that the quality assurance of the project, things that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask about the toll fees and when the Minister will have some type of solid information in terms of the new information that we’re going to get for the toll fees in light of what some things that may happen in terms of revenue coming in for the payment of the bridge.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister consider withdrawing the reference question to the court?

Will the Minister commit to discussing any future decisions to refer matters to the Supreme Court with the Regular Members?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The decision to refer the question of the GNWT’s legal right to impose restrictions on the aboriginal people from the harvesting of caribou is not a good sign of consensus government. Regular Members should have been involved in the decision to refer this matter to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. The legal right of the government to ban aboriginal people from caribou harvesting is a major question. The result of the court hearing could have serious implications not only for the caribou hunt but for the future discussions regarding aboriginal rights and...