Mr. Speaker, continuing on with the feeding frenzy here because there's so much food in the water, because there are so many questions to be asked, I'd like to ask a question about the concession agreement. I've been one of the privileged few to have had the opportunity to see an embargoed copy of it as a Member of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure.
I understand from earlier questions today that the Premier, the Minister of Finance, will be signing the schedules that are attached to the concession agreement by the 22nd of this month. As to an attachment to the concession agreement, though, I haven't seen it. In fact, they haven't been attached to the concession agreement that was made available for me to see.
Given the Premier’s claim to transparency and disclosure on this issue and having apparently a spotless record of providing this information, will he commit to showing us these schedules at his earliest possible convenience so that we can see them and it won’t be a complete surprise when they finally are made public? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d have to clarify. The schedules the Members are talking about as part of the concession agreement are one process. The instruments — I guess that is the proper term — of the lending agency to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation that we are involved with and that the Department of Transportation is involved with are the things that I talked about: the banks needing to proceed with this project and having a timeline of the 22nd. That’s the piece that I’m referring to. That is all part of the due process that is already in place. That’s about to happen. We’re waiting on the lawyers’ final work on that area and looking to move forward with this process. One of those would be the final signing of these instruments. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, instruments, schedules, declarations, call them what you will: this House would like to see those before they are signed, rather than after.
I’m asking the Premier: will he provide those for our review before they are signed? Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, maybe I’ll ask a question back. The fact is that this Assembly feels it hasn’t had the opportunity to debate this in its full length. Concession agreements, schedules, projects that we do, whether they’re $4 million, $40 million or $80 million contracts for infrastructure we have in our communities, or leases — we have 10year leases on infrastructure for office spaces, whether in this city or other communities — go through a process but don’t get reviewed by committee on a contract-by-contract scenario.
In this case, Members are asking for a line-by-line review. We’ve provided that information. I can’t see doing that. We’re already involved, and we’re not extending any more commitment than, in fact, just signing off what’s already been part of the process and having the banks finally satisfied that this can proceed from their lending the money to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and then allowing the bridge to proceed.
At that stage I’m aware that those documents are in final review now and potentially being sent up sometime tomorrow for review and signature as a final sort of step to this. Now, does committee want the veto on that? I’m not prepared at this point, because it’s a normal part of the process, but if committee wants to sit a couple of more days, let’s have a debate in this House. Let’s finally bring this to closure. I would say that if this Assembly is in agreement with this project, then we can finally conclude this and get on with business. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you know, I wish we were talking about a $40 million, $60 million or $80 million project here, but we’re not even talking about a $160 million project. The latest is $240 million, what our final costs will be, and those are without any of the liabilities that we are likely to experience.
Mr. Speaker, all Members of this House have been elected by the people, and to me that means the people of the Northwest Territories have invested their trust in me as their representative, and I think that’s true for every Member in this House.
Will the Premier start to trust the Members of this House like the people of the Northwest Territories do? Will he give us that trust, show us copies of these and give us our chance to have input into this process, which apparently has been limited from the word go? Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, we must be careful what we say in this House. I mean, some Members have come up with their own figure of what this potentially costs. The $242 million figure is someone else’s math work. What we’ve put on the table is the total amount of $165 million. The tolls will pay a significant portion of that. As the act itself identified, we would be taking funds from the ice crossing and the ferries going up to close to $2 million. The FMB of the day agreed to a further extension of $2.28 million as a ceiling for putting this in, based on the dollar values of when that agreement was put in place.
So we’re at the stage where we’re at. Apparently, as the Member is using — it’s not “apparently.” The fact is that we’ve shared, and this project has undergone significant review from a number of parties. The lending agent itself went and got a review. They’re the ones at risk for $165 million if, in fact, they want to lend this money to this project and to make sure it’s a valid project. An independent engineer has been on this file looking at that from another source. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier is not telling the entire story, and he is misleading the House.
Interjection.
