Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last question here. Can I ask the department, over time we’re going to get more and more closed sites and sites that need to be remediated, so is it the intention of the department to put money into their budget to fund environmental liability assessments?

Thanks to Mr. Williams. Where is the money for this environmental liability work? Where does it show up in the budget?

Thank you, Chair, and thanks, Mr. Schauerte, for pointing out what I should have seen in the first place. I guess the revenue for Building Canada Plan for this year, ’15-16, is not there because we haven’t got it yet. Is that right?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of comments and I don’t need a response from the Minister. I will have questions when we get to detail. I just wanted to say that I was really pleased to see that there was a review of the funding formula for communities in this past year. It was well overdue, and I think the process that the department undertook was a good one. My communications with the folks from the City of Yellowknife was that it was a good process, well thought out and lots of good discussions and that the end product was a good one. I was really glad to hear that.

I do have to...

Thanks to the Minister for that. It gives me some comfort, but I am concerned that we are seemingly taking on more and more expenditures and basically just saying, well, that’s fine, we can borrow the money. I can say that I’m not sure if you’re considering everything and, you know, do we really have to go this much into short-term debt. But I do have faith in the Department of Finance and I do have faith in the Minister, so to ask that question, I’m going to get a rhetorical answer. So I will say it out loud but not expect an answer.

If we pass this bill it will then increase our limit to $300...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to consider Bill 43 and then Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, continuing with Environment and Natural Resources and, time permitting, Municipal and Community Affairs and Department of Lands. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. This has been a very, very long time coming. We are four years now, well, not quite four years, but we’re three and a half years anyway from when the commitment was made. This was supposed to be completed in 2013. We’re now in 2015.

I’d like to know from the Minister why has it taken so long for this to get started, because I gather it hasn’t even yet started.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. About a year ago I asked the Minister of Transportation some questions and they were based on a commitment from the previous Minister of Transportation, a commitment he made in December of 2011, and I need to ask those questions again. The questions are around the review or analysis or a comprehensive review of the Deh Cho Bridge.

My first question to the Minister is: What is the status of the review, the analysis, the comprehensive investigation of the bridge project?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my last question, but I have to comment that if we think that remediating the environmental liabilities sites is important, then I would urge the department to request funding to make sure it gets done.

Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little strange that the department is required to do work and doesn’t have any funding for it. Is this something that is minimal to no cost, or you’re overfunded and we don’t need to give you money for liability assessments? It just seems strange to me that if there’s work that the department has to do that there’s not an amount earmarked in the budget. Can I get a guesstimate of how much might be spent on environmental assessments in any one year?