Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My residents are concerned about the construction of the Deh Cho Bridge as well. I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions. I think the concern is that it was really no great surprise that the cost continues to rise and they continue to come to this House for expenditures. Can the Minister assure this House that once this final deal is done, the bleeding will stop, so to speak?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All expectations are that this will be the final ask. It’s going to allow us to have the bridge open this fall. We have also negotiated an end to the claims back and forth on the construction of the project. This is going to be something that we continue to pursue until the bridge is complete in November. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate some of the past issues that the Auditor General’s report spoke of incomplete designs, et cetera. Is the Minister confident in telling this House that all considerations and risk factors have been taken into account to date and that they can achieve this November 2012 opening, especially with this new deal that he is talking about with the contractor? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. Again, it’s our expectation that the bridge will be open in November. We were weighing a few different options in how we could look at this. This was the option that would allow us to get budget certainty and also schedule certainty that would enable us to move forward and complete this project by November.
Again, it wasn’t easily arrived at. We have been in negotiations for a number of weeks with the contractor. This is our best effort to move this project along and get the project complete. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I guess I’m trying to get at the point that in the past there were unforeseen and incomplete things being done. Can the Minister assure us that all aspects of bridge construction have been considered and that this side of the House and the general public have no reason to expect further delays or further cash output from our government and hence the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there always could be potentially unforeseen circumstances, but again, my expectation – and I have been following this project closely for a number of years – is that this will be the final ask of this government to see the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge in November of this year. We can move on after that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All things being considered, I know that last year we had shipping delays, production delays. Is there any of that on the table? What does this House have to expect, or have all things been considered? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, pertaining to the completion of the construction of the Deh Cho Bridge, this is all encompassed in the negotiated deal that we have with the contractor to complete the project. It is in there. This is our way forward so that we can see the bridge get completed this fall so we can get budget certainty and we can get schedule certainty. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions as well will be about the Deh Cho Bridge, similar to my colleague. They will be directed to the Minister of Transportation. Has Ruskin ever failed to comply with directions from our engineers to comply with a particular schedule? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question, but that’s more of an operational question. It would be something that I would be more than happy to go back to the department with and provide the Member with the answer. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that’s a pretty big question. You would think the Minister would know if he was certainly asking for up to $10 million as he pointed out in his Minister’s statement, so maybe I’ll try it again.
Is the department aware in any manner that our engineers - and I believe they are called associated engineers watching the project - have they ever instructed Ruskin to complete this project on schedule? Has there been any pushback or refusal from Ruskin to do so? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide this answer. Back in March it became apparent the contractor wasn’t going to be able to complete the project on time. We had a number of options, three of them. The option that we chose was to work with the contractor to figure out a way that we can negotiate the claims that are out there and complete the project on time in November. That was the schedule that we wanted to maintain. That’s how we negotiated an end to the claims and also put ourselves in a position where we could say that everything is included in that deal. We’re going to have the bridge project completed in November.
Again, if the Member wants further detailed information, we can get that for him. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, maybe can I get some understanding of why they would refuse to comply with our direction provided by our engineer at the particular time? I think it is cited in March. Is he saying if our associated engineers instructed Ruskin to comply with a schedule, why would they refuse to comply with the schedule? What grounds would they have with the ability to refuse a contractual schedule? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s in our best interests as a government to work with the contractor to move forward and not look back. I believe the negotiated settlement in completing the project and working with Ruskin is a much better approach than going back and dealing with the long list of claims and being stuck in court for a number of years. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m still missing the answer of why they would refuse to follow instructions provided by our particular engineers. It almost sounds like, if I’m understanding this correctly, that it’s costing us more money because we are complying with the will of Ruskin. Is this approach costing us more money, as mentioned in the press release, up to $10 million? Why aren’t we enforcing our legally obligated contract which we negotiated with them earlier? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it’s not going to cost us any more money. That is the message that we have to get out there. If the bridge wasn’t going to open this fall, we would be faced with a minimum of $9 million for various costs associated with the delay. We would also have hanging over our heads a number of claims, a myriad of claims that exist for the last couple of years with Ruskin.
What we have done is get some budget certainty and, again, that budget certainty, we have $13.7 million left in the construction budget. We are looking for another between $7.2 million and $9.5 million to add to that $13.7 million to complete the bridge by this coming November. That’s something that we are intent on doing. We need to find a way forward. We need to get this project completed. That is our full intention to do just that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Continuing with the main theme here on the Deh Cho Bridge today, I have some questions for the Minister of Transportation. What is the expected time of completion or payback on the mortgage or bonds that we currently hold on the Deh Cho Bridge?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thirty-five years. Thank you.
My next question is concerning the tolls on the bridge and what effect those tolls will have on the repayment of that debt service.
Thank you. We’re anxious to begin growing our resources here in the Northwest Territories and in the Slave Geological Province. A lot of revenue will depend on truck traffic across the Deh Cho Bridge. So if we can grow our economy and get more trucks moving across that bridge, we’ll increase the revenue there. So again, it’s all dependent upon truck traffic that crosses that bridge. Thank you.
Thank you. As my colleagues have indicated some of the concerns with the high cost of the bridge, one of my questions is what has been removed from the bridge project that was in the original design of the bridge?
Thank you. I missed the beginning of the Member’s question. So perhaps you could allow him to re-ask that question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bouchard, could you speak into the mic?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll ask my question again. As I indicated, I was concerned with the high costs of the bridge, but my next concern was the items that have been removed from the bridge, from the original design. What items have been removed?
Thank you. Those items would predate my tenure as Minister of Transportation, but I’d be more than happy to get that for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question is the estimated cost of delivery of some products to the North and to Yellowknife and beyond. Does the Minister have any indication of the costs these tolls will have on commodities in the Northwest Territories?
Yes, years ago there were looks into that subject, but really it remains yet to be seen on what that impact would be. Some would argue that there wouldn’t be an impact, others would say there is and that’s been the debate since I’ve been a Member of this House since 2003. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point in time in the North, we make it very clear to encourage our youth to go on to post-secondary education. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Our Student Financial Assistance Program is a very good one here in the Northwest Territories. I wanted to ask, the subsidy that the government provides to students has not increased for some years. I know this has been under review since the 16th Assembly. I would ask the Minister what is SFA likely increasing by. How much? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We like to brag about our SFA program comparable to other jurisdictions. We have one of the best Student Financial Assistance programs, and as the Member alluded to, we are in the process of finalizing the recommendations that were brought to our attention.
I did meet with the standing committee to review those and we will be coming forward with those recommendations and making some changes to reflect on what we’ve heard from the students, from the teachers, from the parents and all of those individuals from the general public. So in order to make those changes, we need to come back to the standing committee and we will be doing that in the near future. Mahsi.
Thank you. I want to ask the department again in terms of trying to encourage our students to go on to college and university. What is the department doing to encourage more students to take on a challenge? Mahsi.
Mahsi. We do have various organizations that are working with us, whether it be the Mine Training Society, whether it be career development officers at the community level that do promote and encourage students, especially those individuals that are in Grade 10, Grade 11, Grade 12 that attend post-secondary as part of their tour orientation. So we do encourage those students to pursue post-secondary, and we work closely with the career officers and identify those individuals, what their interests are and work with them.
Our SFA is there for them, highlighting which area of interest and work with those individuals through their principals, through their teachers as well. So we’re doing what we can as a department working with our outreach workers in the community. So we’ll continue to pursue that. Mahsi.
I’d like to thank the Minister. For this fall, just recently there were some realities that came out in terms of facts because attendance was cited as a concern. What plans does the department have to address those concerns on attendance rates for this fall? Mahsi.
Mahsi. The attendance, we currently deal with that through high school and through the Student Achievement Initiative that we pursued. We do have a plan in place. We’re rolling out the implementation plans. That’s one of the areas of interest is attendance, deal with the attendance. But when it comes to post-secondary, the students are more mature and they need to be independent. So we can’t really monitor the post-secondary students per se, but we’re doing what we can with the schools, the high schools to continue monitoring. The results of absenteeism have become a challenge. So we work with the education authorities to deal with those matters. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I’d like to follow up on the statement he made earlier today. I am pleased to hear of the delay in the application of the renewed rent scale for seniors housing, but I’d like some clarification from the Minister. It’s not really very clear to me. I’d like to ask the Minister what the purpose is of this delay and what is the purpose of the phase-in. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
