Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, when it goes $299 million and you say it’s close to $300 million, that is pretty well $300 million, so we can’t undersell this. I do not have the authority to release the risk matrix, but the problem is that the public is being denied the facts of how risky this project is and how scary it looks from this side of the House. Only the Minister has that authority.

Will the Minister release a plain language document, the details, the risks that have been identified and what potential burdens that Northerners may be taking on similar to what just happened to the Deh Cho Bridge? They...

So, other than the anomaly of the downturn in the market, is there a fee structure that’s changed that’s coming into the GNWT as far as lottery licence concern is? So would the downturn alone explain the drop from $75,000 in the last business cycle to an anticipated $50,000 in this one?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the Fire Prevention Act, they appear to review plans for new construction. Can the Minister explain how this gets done if you happen to be somebody who lives in a community?

What’s the enabling document that defines who’s responsible for dredging?

What are the main objectives of this strategic plan, the 2010-2015 plan?

Thank you. The next question was going to be, could I have some recent examples. So I guess there are none. Followed by, I guess the only other question of that is what would be considered a normal example if the New Deal trumps this? What’s left to apply for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that the $299 million was not hypothetical; those are the Minister’s own words. So let’s roll down to some of this.

It’s not hypothetical when the GNWT is brokering a deal with the federal government. So maybe the Minister can enlighten this House, and educate the public, on what the risks are with this particular deal if and when cost overruns do happen. And that’s not hypothetical because there’s not one single GNWT project that hasn’t had cost overruns. These are real risk matrix problems that the department will be working on.

So is the policy not to collect as much revenue off this particular fund? Basically, I assume we’re collecting our revenue lottery commission of some sort, if that’s correct, and if that is what is the percentage or what is the revenue based on in the value of the number?

I’m just trying to understand why we have a departmental head on the board and what relationship it has with the department other than being a funding source. If the government sat on every board we were a funding source for, we would be on the Centre for Northern Families, we’d be on the John Howard Society, we’d be on all these boards. I’m just trying to understand the role. Maybe if the Minister could provide a better description as to why MACA… I think this is a fair question probably for every department, it’s just one that has popped up as the obvious for this department, is what role...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the process of getting into bed with a project, and becoming a partner in it, and understanding the project is knowing where your upper limit is. I’m asking the government what our upper limit is on this particular project, because once it’s started, it’s too late to stop. We need to help identify these things. That’s all part of the process of our original ask, which is defining the project as almost a $300 million initiative. Clearly, the taxpayers, the citizens need to know what the government’s upper limit is, what is the cut-off point we cannot proceed with...