Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Transportation. Again it gets back to the Deh Cho Bridge Project and the financial side of things. I want to ask the Minister of Transportation when exactly did the lenders turn the tap off on the project.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m assuming by the “tap” the Member means the ability to draw down on the construction funding. We were formally notified by the lenders on March 1st that we would not be able to draw down any further dollars. We informed the Members of the standing committee on March 2nd.
Formally notified and reality are two different things. I’d like to ask the Minister when the money stopped flowing on this project and when the government first became aware that the construction account from the lending agency was in fact locked up. When did that happen?
The Member asked about when we were officially notified and I gave him that response. Our last drawdown was in December. We had informed Members that there was some concern that the lenders had issued a notice of default and it may result in complications with the project. Probably around the middle -- I don’t have an exact date -- of February we had some discussions with the lenders. At that time they indicated to us that there was going to be some ability to be flexible and officially we did not have anything in writing until March 1st. We informed the members of standing committee on the 2nd.
I’m just trying to make some sense of how this happens. The money gets turned off in December. The Minister comes before committee the last week of January and tells us everything on the project is going along relatively smoothly. Within two weeks of that meeting we’re informed that the government is looking for a $15 million supplementary appropriation from us and looking for our support for that to in effect loosen up the lenders and get the money flowing again. I’d like to ask the Minister when did the Minister exactly know that there was no money coming from the lenders. I know he says he was officially notified on March 1st, but did the department know back in December and why didn’t they tell us the last week of January? Don’t they have a duty to tell us?
First of all, we didn’t know in December. Our last drawdown through the process was in December. We share all our information with the Members, as the Member knows. We give them all the information. We’re not trying to hide anything. Officially we were told no more drawdowns in writing March 1st. We had discussions with the lenders in February where they indicated to us that there was a notice of default and as a result we had further discussions about the ability of being flexible. They approved and agreed with us that they would be. However, in the following letter we were told that on March 1st and we informed the Members on the 2nd. So we did as soon as possible after being formally informed.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously something happened to spook the lenders. I’d like to know if the Minister knows exactly what that was. We had the Minister come before us requesting that the government approve and the Members approve $15 million in a supplementary appropriation to get that money flowing from the lenders. That wasn’t the case. Obviously we are here this week looking at a supplementary appropriation for the full amount. I’d like to ask the Minister why that was and what happened to the lenders in between those two dates that they decided that us in good faith approving $15 million wasn’t enough.
I’m not sure what spooked the lenders off, as the Member put it. The lenders had indicated that there was a milestone that they wanted to see met, which was January 29th, to have all the redesign in place and approved by their independent engineer. We feel we met that deadline. We had three different engineering firms approve our design. We formally sent it to the lenders and they responded by saying that it wasn’t something that they were going to approve and were going to issue a notice of default. We had some discussions in February that there was going to be a notice. It did not indicate that the funding or the taps were turned off, as the Member has put it. We were formally told March 1st that we would not be able to draw down. In fact, I don’t believe it was even a request for a drawdown that was rejected up to that point.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
