Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, and they are in regard to the Deh Cho Bridge project.
At least three working days ago the Premier said he was going to have FMBS pull some numbers together which might give us an idea of what it would cost our government to exit the Deh Cho Bridge agreement. He made reference to having that information “in a couple of days.” I'd like to know how close we are. How is the Premier intending to share that information with us?
Mr. Speaker, if that could work. As the Member said, Friday. No. In fact, I've been having the department try to pull all this stuff together.
There are a number of factors that come in there that are hard to quantify, and that's been some of the difficulty. For example, if we as an Assembly were to decide to shut this down, what kind of domino effect could happen? That's been the problem area of trying to put this together.
I instructed them this morning, as well as through the Executive, to review what we know is on the ground and what our position is, and then just highlight what the other issues may be that have to be considered. I would provide that to the Members through the Chair of Priorities and Planning.
Mr. Speaker, I'd be most interested in knowing when that might happen, because as the Premier knows, we will all be leaving here shortly.
Speaking of leaving here, Friday is February 22. The 22nd was the day by which the legal counsel for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was supposed to have “dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s,” as has been referred to a number of times. I'd like to know if the Premier has had any kind of update on the status of that review that's been ongoing. If he wouldn't mind throwing in when we can get that other piece at the same time, that would be great.
Mr. Speaker, hopefully, with the direction I’ve given this morning to clarify the problems that were out there in trying to do some of the evaluation, we can get that to Members, I hope, by tomorrow.
The other question on the timelines, as we related, about the 22nd of February. The lawyers have done their work and have gone through that and now are prepared to sign the final schedule on which they were dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
Mr. Speaker, is there some requirement on the part of our government to also sign off on those schedules? Who would be signing on behalf of our government? Is there any way to delay that signing-off until we have received some of this information we’re asking for?
Mr. Speaker, the process is laid out that followed through from the concession agreement, the guarantee that's in place, working with the banks and their lawyers, that they’ve had a secondary review on this.
The signing is to proceed with their final work on it. If the lenders are happy with what’s been committed, then it would be proceeded with.
The Department of Transportation representatives would have to be on a number of the file schedules — or files, I guess, is the term — and there may be a few for which we're trying to get that information that would fall under the finance side or the FMB side.
For an actual schedule or timing, a decision doesn’t have to be made. Those decisions have already been in place. It is now just confirming and following through with the requirements that are being ironed out.
Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I just want to be clear. Is there something yet for our government to sign off with respect to these schedules, which are the appendices to the concession agreement? Do we still have requirements to officially sign something off? If that is the case, who would be signing those off on behalf of our government?
Mr. Speaker, they are, as I stated, part of the process of finalizing the agreement with the lawyers reviewing it. Signatures would need to be accepted from all the parties involved. The lending organizations, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Transportation, as well as Finance, would be required to sign off a number of the schedules. I’m not sure of the exact amount, but this is the follow-through from what was laid out there. We’re following through the process that’s already in place.
