Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with the Deh Cho Bridge. I know that a lot of the issues have been somewhat addressed by the Minister and by the Finance Minister in Committee of the Whole the other day. However, my constituents are really upset that they had to cover the additional costs, because the additional costs come from government coffers and thereby the taxpayers. I would just like to ask the Minister of Transportation, does he have a plan B or a plan C if there are more additional costs to be incurred. Will he be going to the taxpayers or will he look for some other type of financing such as a full toll on the bridge? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Member is quite familiar with the agreement that was signed with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, and in the Bridge Concession Agreement there is a clause that requires the Government of the Northwest Territories to assume the costs if they go over their budget amount. However, the money would then be recovered from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation from its return, and in the event that the government does assume all of the project and is not a partner anymore, it does allow for the government to recoup its costs through the self-liquidating clause that’s in this agreement. That would mean that we would recover from the tolls that are raised. That’s the intent for this additional $15 million that’s been tacked onto the price of this bridge.
As to whether we would raise the tolls, that’s not something we’ve looked at. That is certainly not something we wanted to do. The price of the toll is still to be considered for what it was set at, and if there was ever any consideration for that, we’d have to have considerable discussion around the possibility of raising the toll. So we haven’t considered at that this point. Thank you.
A complete toll system is something that constituents raised. There are, of course, good examples throughout Canada in other jurisdictions like B.C., the Coquihalla Highway, and in eastern Canada, that as you drive you pay your toll, you actually see the repairs happening, you see the bridge, the public infrastructure being built, so you don’t mind paying that extra cost. I really think that the Minister of Transportation should seriously look at this idea that, yes, you know, we are going to need some extra revenue to cover off these costs. I’m telling you, our taxpayers don’t want to be paying these extra costs so we’ve got to come up with a unique and creative way of addressing any increasing costs or even costs of this project alone. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the consideration for providing a toll for all people that travel across the bridge is not something that we have looked at as an option. It would have to be a decision of this House. Right now the consideration for recovery on the extra $15 million would be through the revenue that’s raised from tolling the commercial vehicles. We have not had any discussion with any of my Cabinet colleagues or anyone else, for that matter, and that’s something we’ve considered. We’ve tried very hard to keep the commercial toll from increasing and we certainly did not want to burden the travelling public with a toll. So that’s the rationale for not considering a toll for all traffic. Thank you.
Thank you very much. People are fed up that as taxpayers they have to bail out government for a project that has gone astray such as the Deh Cho Bridge. Once again, the public has asked for information, the ministry has provided that and I’d like to ask the Minister will they use this review and do a post-mortem of the information that they have to ensure that there will be no more increased costs in the upcoming project. It is hopeful that with this additional $15 million that they can certainly stick to the budget and try to be on time. Can the Minister use the baseline data that they have to look backwards and see where they went wrong and come up with a strategy that can ensure that they do not run into this type of problem again? Thank you.
Thank you. We have tried very hard to look at all the different opportunities or any other costs to enter the project and we feel that we’ve covered all the avenues. Of course, I can’t absolutely guarantee that. We’ve also assumed full management of the project. We have a new team, we have a new contractor. Along with that, we plan to have better communications with the public as part of the responsibilities for project management. We want to have regular updates to all the MLAs and the public with the sites that they could look at, informing themselves, including establishing a website and the possibility of signage that explains some of the project information and things of that nature so the public can be more comfortable with this project and be able to have better communications all around. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If I can get the Minister to continue with his commitment that he update Regular Members on this side of the House. I don’t want to get into a situation where we’re micromanaging government projects, be it the Deh Cho Bridge or anything like that, but the residents are concerned and I’m concerned, colleagues are concerned. So will the Minister continue with his commitment that he will update this side of the House on a regular basis and try to make the information as public as possible that we can share with our constituents? Thank you.
Thank you. During the discussion of Committee of the Whole we had made a number of commitments. We certainly committed that we would continue to demonstrate that there is competent management on this project. We would provide clarity and timely information on where the project is at and we will also provide clarity and information on our role as a government and all our trades and people that are involved so that the public knows exactly where this project is at in terms of the timelines and so they will be fully informed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
