Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about a very exciting new office that’s opening in Hay River. Arctic Energy Alliance has announced the opening of a new South Slave regional office in Hay River.

Arctic Energy Alliance is a non-profit society mandated to reduce costs and environmental impacts of energy and utility services in the Northwest Territories, a very big subject that’s been going on through this session.

It’s very exciting that the Arctic Energy Alliance has announced the new person at this office will be Tom Gross, a long-time Hay River resident. This office will be serving...

Along with the comments my colleague just made, I guess, we had the opportunity to meet with NTCL today, and they were obviously concerned about this volume, as well, the fact that I think there are some deficiencies in the marine industry that the Department of Transportation will be looking at and investing money into as opposed to doing it all on highways. Obviously, that’s a concern for them as a company that’s committed to marine, and they see the government investing in highways and roads, basically, supporting the diminishing amount of their market, so I guess they definitely had some...

I had a question about, obviously, the Tuk to Inuvik highway, and this being the budget after we’re expecting an accelerated amount. What is the department’s consideration if the estimated or the projected volume of road we’re supposed to complete isn’t done? Would this money be deleted from the budget or would it just be a carryover to the following year? I’m just wondering about the scheduling. We’re talking about an accelerated schedule. If we don’t meet those accelerated dates, what does that do to this budget? That would be basically the third year, right?

Yes, thank you, Madam…Mr. Chair. I had it all day yesterday; you can get it today.

I guess the concerns are that we continue to hear a lot of things from contractors and from individuals of the opportunities that are there. I guess these anticipated numbers that we were given when we first got the proposal and the numbers, have we met any of the expectations? They predicted they were going to be hiring 90 percent contractors and 90 percent Northerners. Were there any indicators like that and agreements in place?

I guess going forward with this project, obviously, now it seems like we’re accelerating the funds anyway. Maybe the project is going to be close to the anticipated schedule, but I mean, we’re actually accelerating the payment and the funds. Have we talked to the federal government about trying to accelerate payments and will our commitment and the federal government’s commitment match up as far as accelerating now?

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are in the process of reviewing the Tabled Document 155-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015. I have Mr. Dolynny under general comments. Sorry, let’s go to the Minister first. Minister Miltenberger, do you have guests to introduce to the House today?

Total department, not previously authorized, $19.862 million.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Total department, not previously authorized, negative $4.206 million. Agreed?

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Committee, we’re on total department, not previously authorized, $764,000.