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.
