Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to continue trying to make some sense of the mess that is the Deh Cho Bridge Project. It was interesting to hear the Transportation Minister state in a media interview on Friday with CBC that finally the government admits in some fashion that it went ahead with the project despite a cost-benefit analysis that clearly indicated that the government could expect a $53 million negative benefit from the bridge at $165 million. Throw in at least another $15 million and you have a project that will have a negative cost to this government and Territory of $70 million. Not to mention that we are spending this nearly $200 million on a bridge that will undoubtedly increase the cost of living in Yellowknife, Ndilo, Dettah, the Tlicho communities, and every other community serviced by air from Yellowknife.
There are many more questions about this project that have to be asked. Right now the project is almost half done. Up until this week or late last week the Minister and government gave us every assurance that the new design would save money and be less expensive to construct.
During a briefing last week I just about fell off my chair when the Minister said they’re negotiating the deal with what amounts to be one company. Mr. Speaker, I don’t understand for one second why we would not go to tender on the remaining work. Does the Minister not understand that the contractor we’re negotiating with has the government squarely over a barrel? Does the Minister and government not owe it to the people of the Northwest Territories and Members of this House to get the best price that they possibly can for the remainder of this work?
Mr. Speaker, our pants are on the ground and we sure look like a bunch of fools, that’s for sure. Haven’t we been taken advantage of enough, Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker, we are being asked to approve $15 million more for this project when there’s not been a full accounting of where the dollars have gone, where and how much is charged and to who, and exactly where is the design in all of this. How can you negotiate a sole-source deal without a firm design? If we sign a deal without the completion of this design, aren’t we just setting ourselves up to potential changes and cost overruns? Mr. Speaker, I’ll have questions for the Minister of Transportation at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we listened to the large amount of media coverage this morning on the Deh Cho Bridge on CBC Radio this morning, Mr. Ramsay was in for an interview, we heard the Minister’s comments in the media scrum after the House session on Friday, and I’ve been struggling and thinking, you know, what can we do to bring some more, I guess, transparency and accountability to this whole issue of the Deh Cho Bridge.
As my husband and I listened to the news this morning, Rick, who’s not known to be the politician in the family, suggested, he said, isn’t this the first time you’ve actually had to vote money on this project, and I said, yeah, it is. Since we passed that Deh Cho Bridge Corporation Act in the 14th Assembly, this is the first time that we’ve actually been called upon to vote on money related to this bridge project in the form of what will be a supplementary appropriation request for $15 million to address the cost overruns because of the many changes. He said this is the opportunity, this is your chance to get the government to provide very precise and accurate accounting about some of the things we’ve wondered about for a long time. When we agreed to the loan guarantees -- and that’s what they were, they were not expenditures, they were guarantees at the time for getting this project planning done and underway -- each time when we would try to inquire about where the money was being expended, for what went up to be loan guarantees in the neighbourhood of $9 million, we were always told, of course, that the money was being spent by the proponent, which was the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, not by our government. So the normal level of financial reporting was not there out of respect for the proprietors who are the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.
So here as we, Mr. Speaker, have an opportunity coming up where, in fact, we do have to vote money to cover these overruns, I think it would be really good for the government to get very busy trying to account to us how much has been spent on this project. I’m particularly interested in the workers within the Department of Transportation themselves, how much of their time, energy and effort has gone to work on this particular file. So that’s what I will be seeking. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The press release on the Deh Cho Bridge last Friday capped off a depressing few days for me. I can’t say I was too surprised to learn that the bridge project is now officially over budget. Projects the size of this one often encounter delays and cost overruns, so an additional $15 million was not unexpected.
No, the depressing part for me was confirmation of my nagging doubts about the viability of the bridge project and realization that the concerns I’ve harboured about it since I began work in this Assembly two years ago were validated. I’m especially frustrated because I, Members of this Assembly, and the residents of the NWT inherited the Deh Cho Bridge Project without input. I came in after the fact, a concession agreement having been signed three days before the 2007 elections, a project management team set in place prior to the same election, financial guarantees agreed to long before I came into this job.
I’ve never felt comfortable with the process used to establish this project. It certainly was not open and transparent. The government placed a huge trust in a third-party organization and along with that trust willingly set up itself and the residents of the NWT as the financial backstop for a very expensive project.
I consider myself an optimist. It’s my nature to think the best of people and things. I had high hopes for the bridge project and its management that things would work out, that given time the corporation would prove itself competent and in doing so bring the project to completion successfully. Now my hopes are dashed. I feel like some unseen hand has stuck me with a raw deal. I feel like I’ve been backed into a corner and left with no options for a way out.
The extra project costs will impact the government’s financial bottom line and we can potentially end up with responsibility for the bridge loan. But it is by no means the end of the world. With the government now more in control of the project we can minimize future risks and hopefully further costs. However, I, like some of my colleagues, fully expect we’ve not seen the last of cost overruns for this project.
Of paramount importance for this Assembly now is to ensure two things happen:
One, there must be an audit of the whole bridge affair. From inception to today we have to determine and document how things were set in place; what decisions were made, when, and by whom; what actions were taken, when, and by whom; and we must tally all the costs that have been incurred, including in-kind costs which are the result of work done by GNWT staff, the many, many hidden person hours spent on this project.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Two, this Assembly must set in place protocols to guide Executive Council actions that will inhibit major decisions being made in the months preceding an election. We have to shut the door on the opportunity for an Executive Council in the waning days of an Assembly to enter into any major agreement such as the one signed off with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.
We the 16th Assembly have been saddled with the travesty that is the Deh Cho Bridge, but it must never be allowed to happen this way again.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
