Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, I won’t be long, but I do want to emphasize a particular point. A lot of homes were broken up and challenged by this policy of the government. But the fact that they actually decided to make payment as compensation to recognize the mistake demonstrates the courage we need to have to take the next step to do the right thing, which is to formalize that through an apology. With that note, I hope our Premier will deliver that message. That one little step further may mean not just a little but a lot to a lot of people who have suffered through this.

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Transportation knows, runways are an extremely vital piece of infrastructure to any area, region or territory.

I'd like to know what the Minister is doing to pursue funding for this potential project. And if I may underscore, I think we just received a promissory note of $245.8 million. I'd like to hear what he’s doing to make sure the Yellowknife Airport runway extension is being considered in that potential pot of money.

Mr. Speaker, it’s no surprise to this Assembly and certainly not to the Transportation Minister that I’ve been in support of the extension of the Yellowknife runway. I feel it will open up a new tourism corridor, whether it’s for tourism or even business through flights over the top as they bring flights from Asia to North America.

I believe that expanding the runway in Yellowknife to accept larger planes will help not just Yellowknife. I think it will bring an economic boom throughout the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, there’s new information coming out that the...

Mr. Speaker, let’s put it this way. The Minister may be technically right, but when you tell one group, “You didn't get it,” that means the other group did get it. If you're still in negotiations with them….

What involvement did this group have, going back to the original work they had done — this southern company from Abbotsford — with the communities and MACA in preparing for this water treatment process bundled contract? In what process did they have involvement?

Mr. Speaker, a number of us — although, obviously the Premier knows very well, not all of us — are in favour of the bridge on this side. I am certainly in favour of it, and that hasn’t changed since I came back to this House.

The constituent that I am raising this point for is definitely in favour of the bridge as well, but they are concerned about the bread-and-butter issues of this bridge.

As I have always understood it, the tolls are set in such a way that according to local industry, it is going to cost about $250 for a truck to cross this bridge. How will that affect your milk and your eggs...

Mr. Speaker, I raise concerns today about the transparency and fairness of the recent awarding of a bundled contract for five water treatment plants to a consortium led by a southern contractor, the Abbotsford, B.C., group that I talked about. It has brought concern and attention to this process that need to be dealt with.

Can the Minister of MACA outline for this Assembly the involvement of this southern contractor’s services in supplying and developing the design of the water treatment plant process, and potentially even in the awarding of the contract?

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to further question the Minister of Transportation on some of the items he raised in his comments to me.

I think he said the Deh Cho Bridge organization at Fort Providence was chasing $50 million as one of the potential sources of revenue. I’d first like to get some clarification on that. When shall we get some feedback if this is going to be a reality, and when was this applied for?

Mr. Speaker, did anyone from MACA phone the unsuccessful proponent to clarify these areas of concern, that we had a southern-based contractor working with these communities on individual contracts? And by the way, they may even be involved in the contract RFP call. Who knows? Probably the answer is no.

The concerns are related to this process, Mr. Speaker, and they indeed deserve an explanation.

The fact is that this Northern company, this Northern consortium, wouldn’t reconsider even bothering to respond to this request for proposal, knowing very well the fact that this southern company from...

The Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll respect that, because his letter, that I’m not allowed to quote and which will be tabled later, will help clarify that question officially.

So my last question for the Minister is around the context of what if this Northern firm isn’t hypothetically the one we’re negotiating with, although everyone knows it’s not the group we’re negotiating with. What’s to assure us that some undue process wasn’t happening here, and is the Minister prepared to reimburse that Northern company that spent all that time trying to build a proposal that was actually unofficially awarded already?