Mr. Speaker, I’d like to welcome Stephanie Heidl to the gallery, formerly of Inuvik, I think now taking a social services course here in Yellowknife, I believe. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I’d like to recognize Wendy Morgan in the gallery, a former defector of Hay River now living in Yellowknife.
If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs in regard to the emergency measures plans we have in place in light of the storm that hit the Beaufort-Delta and Sahtu last week. I think it should be a real eye-opener for ourselves and municipalities and the people that we serve that we are going to see some severe challenges.
I’d just like to ask the Minister, has your department, working through the local governments and the different affected departments, Transportation and also Public Works and Services, and more importantly, NorthwesTel in regard to the effect that this storm has had on not only the communities but the whole service provider, considered forming some sort of a working group to do an assessment of that storm, the effects that it has and what can we do as governments and municipal governments and our service providers face these challenges realizing that this storm is probably something that we will see more of going forward? Is the department in communication with those other groups? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I blame that lapse of concentration on age. We will continue to monitor and work with the local municipal governments to deal with some of the affects of the storm that has been had on their communities. Obviously, now that this is over, they can go over the situation and see where improvements can be made. But I can commit to the Member that we will see what we can do as a department to do our part and work with the communities to ensure that they are well prepared in the future. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I for one feel that it is critically important that we do formulate some sort of a working relationship with all of the parties that were affected by the storm. Like I say, the winds were clocked at 167 kilometres at James Creek. That was where they knocked out the NorthwesTel communication system which totally knocked out communications in the Beaufort Sea/Mackenzie Delta and even the Sahtu. Also, by road closures and everything else, the cost it is going to take to reopen all of these roads are costs that we weren’t really aware of. I would just like to ask if the Minister can formulate some sort of a working group between those different government agencies and possibly look at consideration of adapting these types of situations to our emergency measures plans.
Mr. Speaker, we have had our share of storms in the past. This seems to be a more common occurrence. It is one that I think communities will have to take steps in addressing. I have always been impressed with the resilience of a lot of communities that are able to dig their way out of a storm immediately after it happens. I will commit to the Member that I will have a discussion with senior management and we will see what we can do about forming a group to take stock of the situation that happened and how we can best be prepared for it in the future. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, also in light of the loss of life in the storm that affected a resident who was lost in Colville Lake. I think also a lot of our residents were stuck or trapped in other locations, either going to Inuvik or basically getting in and out of our communities, where it came so fast people just weren’t able to get back home and they were stranded in a lot of different communities. More importantly, even the airline companies couldn’t get in and out of our communities and the same thing because of the road closures. As part of their review, could they consider the whole response in regards to responding to communities, making them aware that these storms are coming, and work to ensure that we are able to respond to these various storms well ahead of time so that the warnings are out there and people are aware that we are going to be hit by a severe storm? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I will commit to the Member that we will look at all the different situations. In a lot of the smaller communities, I think we rely a lot on the elders that are in there, because they seem to know before anybody else that a storm is coming and they warn folks. I can assure the Member that a warning system could be one of the issues that is looked at by this working group. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This storm will also probably put us straight on financial resources of municipalities, government departments and whatnot. I would like to ask the Minister if he could possibly come back with a cost assessment of what this storm has cost by way of costs to basically not only react to the storm but also the cost to dig ourselves out. The Department of Highways I know were having to put Cats and everything on the roads because graders just couldn’t cut it. I would like to know if the Minister can look at the financial implications of the storm. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we will be able to have a fairly good idea of what it may have cost in the communities themselves and municipal governments to do a lot of the work that happened as a result of the storm. Clearing the snow and that are part of their daily activities that they would take care of after any type of snowfall, but I will do what I can to try and get the numbers as to what it may have cost the municipal governments after this particular storm and relay them on to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will ask questions to the Minister of Transportation regarding the Deh Cho Bridge on decisions made by this current government under their watch today.
Mr. Speaker, in reading the Auditor General’s report, it would appear that an external audit of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation’s financial statements had not been done while the Auditor General was looking at this project. That means that trying to put a figure on the cost to date on that project just leaves a lot to be questioned. Does the Minister have a cost to date on the Deh Cho Bridge Project? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have the figures. The Auditor General reviews and audits the bridge project on an annual basis. They have been since the project started. They also have the information. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that would be true for the Department of Transportation’s role in the Deh Cho Bridge Project, but I am talking about the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and their financial records. Has an external audit of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation’s financial records been audited? If so, can we see it? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the audit is a comprehensive audit that includes the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation’s financial statements. I think that is all available for this year very shortly. I understand an audit has been completed just in the recent weeks. I can certainly try to get my hands on it for the Member. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to ask a question today about concerns over the design. Also in the Auditor General’s report it talks about concerns over the design being brought forward by the Department of Transportation and somebody somewhere overriding a recommendation of the department to continue to waive the requirement for the design being done and to proceed with construction. It is paragraph 27, if the Minister wants to have a look at that. I would like to ask how that could happen. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we do have a design sign-off on all components of the bridge project. As I indicated yesterday, we have also had our own independent design engineers, our experts, review the design. They all approve it. What the Auditor General is looking for is one signature to approve all components. Right now we have a designer that approved the piers and we have a designer that approved the superstructure. Although the superstructure is 85 percent of the overall design, her desire is to have us have one designer approve all the different components and that would bring comfort. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. It wasn’t really what I was looking for, though. It is paragraph 27 of the Auditor General’s report which states quite clearly that the risk to the project was significantly increased when the Government of the Northwest Territories waived the approval of the design in order to allow construction to start. Was the recommendation from the Department of Transportation not to proceed with construction? Who made the decision to waive the requirement to have that design completed? Thank you.
Thank you. My job is to get the bridge built, to steer it to a final product. It’s very difficult if I have to try to steer it while looking in the rear-view mirror all the time. Mr. Speaker, I’d have to respond to the Member by stating that the design and the amendment to the concession agreement was made on the advice of the department, it was signed off by the Minister of the day with authorization from Cabinet of the day. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member’s statement I talked about the completion of Highway No. 6. I’d like to ask the Minister of DOT some questions on that. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister tell me what the plan is for addressing the chipseal stage of Highway No. 6 from kilometre 67 to kilometre 90? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I commend the Member for raising the issue on a consistent basis to bring attention to the need for improvement to our infrastructure, and in particular Highway No. 6. We have been working very hard with the Member and the Member’s community to move the project forward. We’ve done a lot of work on Highway No. 6. It needed a lot of work to ensure that the preservation of the road was intact.
We have been working and focusing on the area from Buffalo River to the community of Fort Resolution. We had identified a little over $7 million to do the work on that section of road. We’ve done a lot of work in terms of design. We have done a lot of work focusing on an issue that has challenges and that’s the drainage conditions. I think we’ve resolved a number of these issues. We have, for this coming year, approved for chipsealing, a budget. I don’t have the particulars as to the amount and the actual areas. I could commit to the Member to find that and provide it to him, but I can assure him there will be some chipsealing that will be done on Highway No. 6 this coming season. Thank you.
Thank you. Could the Minister tell me what the plan is for the rest of the highway, the highway that goes from -- they’re planning on chipsealing to Res, not that portion -- but the portion that goes from Little Buffalo River towards Pine Point? Thank you.
Thank you. As we come to the end of the season and the commitment this coming year, we need to focus on the additional stretch of road on Highway No. 6. Highway No. 6 is 90 kilometres long. It’s going to take further investment and we recognize it’s going to be difficult to commit to putting all the dollars in the budget over a short period of time. So we’ve decided that we have to put this in the needs for the upcoming budget or the new budget, the new government, and we have identified that it’s going to need roughly $15 million over the next five years to conclude the work on this road. So that’s something that we’ll be including in the needs. Thank you.
Thank you. Can the Minister place that number into the infrastructure plan for the department, $15 million? Thank you.
Thank you. I can assure the Member that the $15 million requirement is in the needs assessment, the five-year needs assessment. It will be the decision of the next government to ensure that these dollars are indentified and invested into that stretch of road. I can’t commit that that’s going to happen, but as I pointed out to the Member, that’s what it’s going to need and we are aware of that and that’s what we’ve put in our transition documents. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the chipsealing project this summer, can the Minister direct his staff to work with MACA and the hamlet, try to gain some economies of scale, because the community is planning on doing chipsealing in the community as well this summer. I’m just wondering if this Minister could work with the hamlet and Minister of MACA to complete the chipsealing of the community while they’re chipsealing from Buffalo River. Thank you.
Certainly, Mr. Speaker, it’s our practice to work with communities and in some cases we’ve been able to combine efforts and lower the cost of chipsealing. In some cases we’ve actually stepped in and provided some of the technical expertise that the community was lacking. We’d certainly want to sit down well in advance of this project moving forward, to have that discussion and see if there’s any way that the community can take advantage of the work that’s being done in the area. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance was complimented at last week’s public meeting on carbon taxation for being the Minister promoting discussion on this opportunity. Three MLAs and three Ministers attended the roundtable to get the facts and they are to be congratulated too. Participation from Finance and Environment and Natural Resources officials added to the discussion. With the Minister’s leadership, this discussion is well underway. Can the Minister say what the next steps will be in pursuing this work? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a number of fronts on this particular initiative where we’re looking at the Greenhouse Gas Strategy, which is underway. It will be done sometime this spring and summer and that will encompass the broad discussion of how do we control our emissions and our carbon footprint and what are the things we have to do in terms of standards and other options in terms of moving forward to be as responsible as possible. We’ve also committed through the Finance side to do work on the carbon tax. We’ve assisted with this workshop that the Member was at last week and that myself and Minister Bob McLeod attended. That work is going to help inform the work that’s being pulled together and all that will be part of the transition document going forward for the 17th Assembly’s consideration as soon as they take office next fall. Thank you.
Thanks for those comments from the Minister. I appreciate all the work that is being done there and is underway. I’d like to confirm that the Minister’s portfolios are gathering the necessary data we’ll need, recognizing that the NWT is likely a bit different than the rest of the jurisdictions where this has been applied. So we’ll have to customize such a tool to make sure it benefits us to the greatest extent.
So is the Minister ensuring that all the data that will be needed to make good decisions is being collected? Mahsi.
Thank you. We appreciate the Member’s point and we are of the same mind, that whatever we do has to be tailored and reflect the realities of the Northwest Territories as an individual and unique jurisdiction. We are doing the work in both areas, both on the Finance side and Environment and Natural Resource side, to pull together the best information that’s available so that we can set all the pieces in place for the incoming Assembly to make an informed decision, hopefully as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier today and I want to speak to some of the questions that have arisen from the Auditor General’s report.
In February of 2008, when the project was at financial close and things were in a bit of a critical situation, I believe that the Department of Transport expressed concern that the bridge design was not complete, and at that point, according to what the Minister of Transportation said earlier, there was a decision by Cabinet to go ahead with the project without design approval. I’d like to know on what basis, if the Premier can advise on what basis Cabinet made that decision to go ahead with the construction of the bridge. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s be clear on this: Cabinet did not overrule Transportation. The fact is this project was under the Department of Transportation and it is the initiative of the department and Minister to bring forward papers for discussions on that process.
