Statements in Debates
Yeah, thank you. Can I just confirm I think before that this was money administered on behalf of others and then we changed the financial reporting, and it shows up this way. And essentially we're just holding this money for the communities and these fluctuations are based on how we get it out the door, is that correct? Thank you.
Yeah, I understand we've been asking the federal government for money for this so they must have a guess of what it's going to cost. And actually at one point, the Minister Vandal said that the money was very close. Like, he almost said he was giving it to us. I think it was coming out of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. So I'm assuming the feds know how much the project costs. And I mean, I don't know how they can if we haven't picked a route but they must know something. Are the feds giving us any money for Taltson any time soon, or did that kind of disappear with this whole first we have to...
Thank you. You know, I think this requires a very fulsome public debate. How much are we selling the power for? How much power are we selling? How long how many mines do we need to exist to buy it? What's the payback? You know, what is what are these projects doing in other jurisdictions? How much are their cost overruns? How much is it roughly going to cost? I just can't believe I'm being asked for money without any of that information. I guess can I have how much money right now is the government asking for this Taltson Expansion preconstruction? Thank you.
Yeah, you know, I don't want it in confidence. I think this is just completely undemocratic. We're heading into an election, and the next Assembly has to make the decision to do the same thing we did where you put the three major infrastructure projects in your mandate or to pick one. And there's strong arguments on either side. You know, there is some argument the way you get these built is you just kind of always keep them on the books and you play the lottery with the feds and, you know, you try and get the money based on what their priorities are. There's also an argument that maybe we...
Thank you. I see we have some preconstruction engineering regulatory activities for Taltson Expansion preconstruction. Do we have a rough cost estimate of what we think the Taltson Expansion will cost? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounded like we're not going to quite get there in the remaining week. I'm skeptical that the next government will take that on. I know the definition of northern business is complex, and I think you really just have to make a decision and commit to it. I don't suspect there's agreement. But in reviewing that, it says, the Minister's report tabled in July or released in July, it says a new definition of northern business which will result in the removal of Schedule 3 from BIP has been created. I understand it's been shared with Indigenous governments. Can the...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We hired an independent panel, and they did some really good work on procurement, and they delivered their report in June 2021. And Mr. Speaker, I somewhat naively thought that, you know, within a few months after that we'd see changes to procurement.
I reviewed their report. I thought they did good work. I didn't really disagree with any of the recommendations. They made a few recommendations to change the thresholds in BIP, increasing the top $1 million to $2 million, recommended creating a local labour adjustment, and a few other tweaks.
They recommended a new...
Yeah, I understand what a business case is, Mr. Speaker. I understand you need one in order to justify spending billions of dollars. I didn't quite get an answer there of whether so I'll try again. Has the business case been developed and if so, can we release it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Halfway, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on the review of the 20212022 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Thebacha, that Committee Report 7019(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 20212022 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In today's Minister's statement, the Minister of Infrastructure tried to paint a rather rosy picture of our energy future, and I'm quite at a loss of why we would do this because, Mr. Speaker, I think we need to be honest with the public that our energy future is looking pretty grim. I think the statement should have started with, the first thing, we subsidized our power corp $15 million this year because of a record low water year and an underestimation of the cost of diesel in current rates. Mr. Speaker, those problems are not going anywhere. The reality is is that...