Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier, where I was talking about the Nunavut government signing a $242 million dollar deal over the next seven years with the federal government for infrastructure development in the Nunavut Territory. It got me wondering. I know the Building Canada fund. We’ve had much discussion here in the House about, well, I guess, what the definition of a list is. I have my own definition; cabinet seems to have their definition of what a list is.
I’d like to ask the Premier what plans his government has to secure a long-term infrastructure funding deal with Ottawa.
Mr. Speaker, we have been working with the federal government on a very similar plan to what the Nunavut government has just announced. It’s a combination of the Building Canada Fund and the municipal gas tax rebate that’s going to communities. We’ve been negotiating, and we’ll be signing an agreement in the very near future as well.
Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Premier what resources are currently being deployed to secure this investment deal with the federal government. Is it the Department of Transportation, or is it the Department of Executive, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, in this government we’ve given the lead to Municipal and Community Affairs and Transportation to work jointly on this initiative as the Building Canada Fund has those aspects to it.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to request a timeline for when the Premier might have the two departments come back to Members of this House with information pertaining to a deal with Ottawa.
Mr. Speaker, this agreement that has to be worked out has two levels of negotiations that need to be done. One is a framework agreement; following that a funding agreement. In the very near future they’ll be able to sign the framework agreement, and we’ll have an idea following that on the funding arrangement that will flow from that agreement.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe the funding is contingent on project-specific details. I just wanted to make that clear.
I’d like to ask the Premier: is the federal government looking for project specifics on funding, or is it just blanket funding for a period of time?
Mr. Speaker, the process that we’ve been involved with to date… Initially they were looking for us to look at a number of projects that could be attached to this agreement. We’ve had further discussions preparative to signing a framework agreement. We’ve been saying it’s fairly difficult to highlight project-specific funding when the agreement still includes the federal government having a say in what the final outcome will be on any project.
