There are quite a number of possibilities not only for the Sahtu region, but with regard to the Sahtu. I guess the immediate one that comes to mind is the conversion to natural gas that would reduce the cost of living. Secondly, you’d be looking at hydro, also mini-hydro, hydrokinetics that could work under the ice and certainly cogeneration and, of course, biomass, which would be a significant form of energy as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement of today and have questions for the Minister of Transportation pertaining to access roads.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s a difficult question to answer, as I sit as a member of that committee and so does the Member that’s asking the question. Certainly I think this is a very worthy discussion that needs to take place and I certainly would be pleased to be part of that discussion with the Rural and Remote committee. Thank you.
With respect to the specific project for Austin Lake road, will the Minister be prepared to develop a strategy in conjunction with the mini-hydro project to start the Access Road Program discussions? Thank you.
I’m not prepared to be the lead on the Austin road project at this point. The community has a role to play here and ITI has identified the project in the area. There have been some discussions that have taken place and we have been involved, but I am very hesitant to say that we will be the lead.
It’s a municipal piece of infrastructure that is required. We do have a program that can be tapped into for a small amount of money and we’ve also had some discussion with some of the people from Diavik that are very interested in working with the community to help coordinate and pay and give some advice in that area. So we’d be pleased to be part of any type of group that would be considering to make plans and invest, but as to being the lead, I don’t believe that’s our position. Thank you.
Then is the Minister prepared to develop and present a new expanded Access Road Program to the House? Thank you.
I’m glad that several Members have raised the issue and concern regarding the amount of funding in the Access Road Program during our presentation. Yesterday it was raised by a number of Members also. So I certainly will have a discussion with our officials in the Department of Transportation and also people in Finance for consideration for the next budget that comes forth. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister sort of answered the question that is he prepared to seriously examine substantial budget increases to the Access Road Program starting next year. Thank you.
I’d be glad to bring more money to the table in this program. However, consideration has to be made by all departments and the Department of Finance as we move forward with our priorities. But I will certainly take his advice and have our officials look at what could be improved on and how much money that would take, and bring that forward in the next budget that we bring forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a program put on by the Northern Construction Association. It’s called Certificate of Recognition, also known as COR. Mr. Speaker, it’s a very successful program across Canada and it’s about safety management. It’s also implemented by all if not most provinces, which also includes the Yukon Territory, where they work on this accreditation on public service and construction projects. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, is his department today looking into this accreditation program and are they considering this as a certain standard level on all government service contracts as well as construction contracts going forward someday? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes, we are considering it at this point.
As I mentioned, the Yukon Territory is able to use this standard called COR throughout their Territory as well as their small communities quite extensively. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister had any engagement with the Yukon Territory to see if it is possible to use some of their phase-in model that they used over there where they had only significantly high contracts the first year and then they kept lowering them down until we could expand the program throughout the system in a fair and reasonable way, recognizing that they’re small contractors, small service providers, as well as large ones? Has the Minister used the opportunity to engage the Yukon on their process? Thank you.
We are quite familiar with what the Yukon has done in this area and the staged-in approach that they had utilized. We’ve had discussions. So the answer is yes.
Could this be described as an initiative that the Department of Public Works does support and do they see it as something they’ll be implementing in a timely way and what would that mean? Thank you.
Other jurisdictions have engaged in the process. Right now there’s only, I think, five companies that are considered to be certified. We are looking at the consequences of what it would mean to all the different departments involved and communities and their different contractors and different sizes of contractors. So it’s something being considered right now and we’ll be looking at it very seriously. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You don’t get to hear this often as a Yellowknife MLA. Would the Minister of Public Works be willing to meet with me and some constituents who want this issue to be seriously considered by the Department of Public Works, because there are a lot more than five construction businesses that actually use this and certainly there are businesses in Fort Smith, Norman Wells, I believe Inuvik, as well as Yellowknife that use this? So it’s a territorial program I’d see in the long-term, but the question really is, Mr. Speaker, is the Minister willing to entertain a meeting with some of these northern construction folks to see how they could help move forward on this initiative? Thank you.
We are already engaged with the Construction Association on this issue. I don’t see the relevancy of having the Member attend. I’m sure they would invite him if they thought he should be there. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no one Minister responsible for addressing poverty, which may explain the lack of a focus and strategic effort on the issue, so I don’t know who to direct this to. Perhaps the deputy minister or the Minister of Health and Social Services; Deputy Premier, excuse me.
The extreme pattern in distribution of incomes in the Northwest Territories presents some challenges, and certainly, given our economic status in Canada and the Northwest Territories, the numbers of children and families in Canada and the NWT that are in poverty is nothing short of scandalous. What is the Minister’s view on the need for a comprehensive across-government plan to attack poverty similar to those being adopted by progressive governments across the country? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Deputy Premier, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That type of fundamental policy debate I think is always good for any government. We spend now 65 cents of every dollar on social programs; we invest a tremendous amount of time and effort in a host of program areas from housing to education, income support, health to assist in those kinds of areas. We have a focus on cost of living to communities. So we would be interested in that type of a broad policy discussion. Thank you.
Thank you for the comments, Deputy Premier. I think certainly those comments reflect where many of us are. Given that a well thought out and implemented strategy with ongoing evaluation is demonstrably more effective than independent reactive policies, such as we put in place now -- and we have put a lot in place, I’m the first to admit that -- what action is this government willing to take to now move to the next level of developing a comprehensive strategic plan to tackle the issue? Thank you.
We, as a 16th Assembly, laid out some very fundamental, basic and laudable principles to address some of those issues. If there is an interest and need to look at that and how do we reconfigure some of our program areas, and if we have to coordinate differently, then I think there would be an opportunity and need for some further discussion with the Members, maybe the Social Programs committee, to get a better sense of how we could collectively look at how we’re going to possibly readjust. Thank you.
Again, I appreciate those remarks from the Deputy Premier. I know the members of Social Programs are listening closely today and I suspect there is, indeed, interest and need.
As I’ve mentioned, most governments across Canada are now taking this action, in recognition of the gains to be had. In fact, the federal government has announced a deficit of more than $50 billion owing to its effort to get Canada out of recession, but, meanwhile, one in five Canadian families, one in nine children, live in permanent economic recession. What is the Minister’s view on the need for a national anti-poverty plan and the legislation, and will he push the federal government to make this a priority? Thank you.
That may be a step that we would want to consider first, though I would suggest we have some discussion as a Legislature to see what our thinking is and have our own plan so that when we stand up to the federal government to ask them to do something, we know clearly what we’re doing back home and how we think that should be better reflected on the national stage. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I appreciate those comments. I suppose the last question, really, is, is there a time frame -- given that we’re slightly over halfway through our term here, and I’d like to see some good progress here, I know many of us would and it sounds like the Deputy Premier as well -- that we can expect for this initiative to come from Cabinet or does he see Social Programs leading that effort? Thank you.
The Member has raised the issue in this House and, as a suggestion, I believe there is opportunity for us to collaborate on this. The issue is going to be just to arrange the time. If there is an interest signified to us that the Social Programs committee wants to have a thorough discussion on this, then we would be happy to comply with that request and just work on the scheduling, which is a challenge in the normal course of events. But I think if there’s an interest, we have about 18 months, by my estimation, of time left where we could actually do substantive work. So we don’t have a lot of time left in the life of the 16th Assembly given all our other multitude of priorities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Transportation. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the Deh Cho Bridge project. As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, I fought the process for four years and that’s a fight I obviously didn’t win. The bridge is being constructed. This House is going to be begin appropriations for that bridge as we move forward. I would like to ask the Minister how exactly is the Department of Transportation involved in the overall project management of the Deh Cho Bridge project today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, our contract with the Deh Cho Bridge, or our agreement is with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. They provide all the oversight in terms of construction, design and onsite management. We do have staff people who are dedicated to this project and working very closely. We do provide a review of all invoicing. We do provide a review of all changes that are made and things of that nature, so we are quite involved. We have a person strictly dedicated to this project. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that. Does the Minister have any knowledge about what it is costing the Department of Transportation and the Government of the Northwest Territories on an annual basis to be involved in the project, as you mentioned, onsite, have staff dedicated to that and, as well, the cost of anything charged by the Department of Transportation to the Deh Cho Bridge project? What are those costs to date?
The Member is asking for a very specific price tag. I can inform the House that we have, I believe, it’s a position and a half dedicated to the project and related expenses for these people. Thank you.
Another question I think is important to ask today is it appears evident that the bridge is going to be delayed for a period of time, so it’s not going to be built on time. Is it going to be built on budget? I think that’s the question many people have. How confident is the Minister that the bridge will come in at the price that was quoted, $160 million? Thank you.
The bridge project is still on budget and it’s still on schedule. We anticipate that there are going to be some delays as the review of the design required some changes. That’s being done. We expect that to be completed and final revisions by December or January and any further changes to the contracts will be out by March. So we expect that there will be a delay of at least a half a year or more, probably that it will be one year. That shouldn’t reflect in any additional costs.
The cost that is of concern is the first payment that is going to become due in December of 2010 and that’s going to be for $2.5 million, which is the interest payment to lenders. If the bridge is not completed by June of the following year, then there will be an additional $2.5 million. So there is a good possibility that the payments will become due and there will still be no revenue being generated from the traffic that crosses the bridge. So that may be of concern and we haven’t yet calculated how we would recover those dollars. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. One other area that I wanted to touch on on the financial exposure, and that’s through the lien that I know of. I wonder how many liens are out there on the project itself and what future financial liability might the Government of the Northwest Territories incur because of the liens being put against the project, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
There are no liens against the Government of the Northwest Territories. There has been a lien placed on ATCON, the company that is doing the piers right now -- that’s Ruskan -- and there is also a lien filed against the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation by Structal, which has been there for some time, I believe. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
