Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to chime in here with my colleague Mr. Menicoche. What we’re hearing here today is absolutely hogwash. We’ve got a northern contractor here, the only northern contractor left that has yet to be paid for the work and services they did on the bridge, and we’ve got a referee program that we’ve clearly documented and the government has said we agree with the terms, we just don’t have the money left.
What kind of message are we telling our contractors out there? Please do the work for the government and we’ll pay you when we think or when we feel?
The Minister talks about ATCON and monies left over. Let’s talk about the facts. I’ve got correspondence from June 26th sent to my office from the department that clearly says that the terms of the agreement with the Government of New Brunswick, who secured the ATCON letter of credit, that these funds were to be used for deficiencies in the project caused by ATCON. From the Minister’s own words to my office, we have an amount of $690,707. Why isn’t the Minister using those funds and putting a little pressure on New Brunswick to pay our bills?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The deficiencies, I think that seems to be the key here. The work was done by ATCON. The money given to us from the New Brunswick government was to clean up the deficiencies. There are deficiencies on the work that Rowe’s had performed for ATCON, as well, and that’s part of the work that we are doing. But the deficiencies to finish the bridge, we have about $700,000 to $800,000 worth of deficiencies still on the bridge. We have about $750,000 in that account. We want to use that money to finish the deficiencies.
Let’s actually speak about all the numbers, shall we, because we’re kind of dancing and skirting around the issue. As I said, ATCON has a holdback of $696,707, plus this government has a holdback with Ruskin and ATCON for over $958,000. Clearly, we’ve got two pots of money here that could be used to pay the bills that are outstanding to the project. Will the Minister commit to paying this bill?
No. Not in this forum.
Can the Minister indicate why?
Because we need to provide the documentation to the Government of New Brunswick that will validate the payment. This is not exactly what we got the money for. We got that money to do the deficiencies on the bridge, pay for the deficiencies on the bridge. There is more work to be done on the bridge. There are more deficiencies. This money wasn’t given to us so that we could pay companies that didn’t get all of the payments for the work that they’ve done with a company that went bankrupt.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s clear this government expects private industry to pay our financing for projects, and this is unacceptable.
As we said clearly, we went to an arbitrator, we agreed with the arbitration that we owe this contractor money. We’ve got two pots of money that are clearly in detail to use for such things as a payment back to a contractor. We’ve got holdbacks. We’ve got workings with the government. Again, this is a perfect, clear-cut case that we should be paying our bills.
Why is this Minister, why is this Cabinet, why is this government refusing to support local businesses and why aren’t they paying this bill?
This government supports lots of local and northern businesses. This is an issue where we need to have the proper documentation and we need to have the legal grounds to pay out of what is not considered to be exactly the reason that we got money. We weren’t given the mandate to just spend the money wherever we felt, wherever we felt pressure, wherever we felt that individuals were coming and trying to present this from a political perspective. We have a referee’s report, number one, and number two, the referee’s report said two of those had technical merit, that they felt that two of those claims were work that was actually done by Rowe’s but they weren’t necessarily deficiencies that are left on the bridge.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you. I’ll chime in, as well, and I think this is exactly what I was talking about in my Member’s statement about us working with businesses in the Northwest Territories.
The Minister indicated we were working with the company, yes, and that’s the problem. We were working with the company on a whole bunch of different problems and it’s taken four years with me as an MLA to get this to the floor of the House. The company has been very leery to take it to the House because they want to deal with the Department of Transportation. They have many contracts with them. We have them over a barrel. We paid out Ruskin.
Why did we pay out Ruskin and now are not willing to pay out Rowe’s?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ruskin built a bridge for us. We had to pay them. Thank you.
I am referring to Ruskin was on the job before ATCON started. We paid them out. We paid out several contractors that were doing work for ATCON that they held us accountable for the bridge. Rowe’s didn’t have that leverage. Why did we pay all those other contractors and we’re not paying Rowe’s?
As I indicated in one of the responses, I don’t have the list of individuals that were paid out or the circumstances surrounding the payout. What I’m dealing with is the payout of a company, Rowe’s Construction, at this point. What we’re indicating is that we have the money to finish the bridge, clean up all the deficiencies. If we’re going to pay over and above that, if we’re going to pay for a deal that somebody made with another company that went bankrupt on the job, then we’d have to come back to the House for more money. It’s that simple. We can’t take money out of there and then pay somebody and then come back in here and say we need more money for deficiencies.
We know and the government is willing to say we’re using ATCON, a company that’s no longer there, using them as leverage. But when the government has inspectors in the project, they inspect the whole process. We had a whole bunch of stuff that was outside of the scope of the project. We hauled a whole bunch more rock from a longer distance. The Department of Transportation knew that. They gave approval to it and Rowe’s did that work.
Again, the Minister is indicating that there’s a merit there. Why are we not paying the bills based on a merit that we’ve given?
We’re not paying it because we don’t have the proper documentation indicating that there was a contract between Rowe’s Construction and we’re not paying it because the money that we got was not for this. The money that we got from the New Brunswick government was to pay for the deficiencies of the bridge, not to cover unfinished business by ATCON that wasn’t paid out. We don’t have any written authorization from ATCON. We don’t have any documentation. There is really nothing there other than the discussions that Mr. Rowe has been having with DOT, and based on that we are continuing to work on solutions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister keeps talking about we’re not done the bridge, and I’m not sure when we’re going to get that done. We know we’ve added stuff to the contract. We know we’ve added guardrails. We know we’ve added telephones to the system. Now we’re spending more money and the reason that this is on the floor today is because now we’re going to spend another 12 to 30 million dollars on the Tuk-Inuvik Highway. We’re willing to stroke a cheque for them, but when a contractor that’s done the work and has been talking to this government – and not only the Minister, the Premier, Members of the Cabinet all know the situation that’s going on here – we are not paying the bill.
The question is why, with all the extras that we’re adding on to it, why haven’t we paid Rowe’s for the stuff that they’ve already done on the bottom of this bridge, and now we’re adding stuff on the top? Thank you.
There’s not a whole bunch of reasons why we’re not paying. It’s documentation, it’s the agreement that we had between another government and ourselves. So I can only answer this in one way, that this money that we got from another government was not there to pay for this work. It was there to cover the deficiencies. We still had deficiencies on the bridge. We have approximately the same amount of money left in the fund that there are deficiencies on the bridge. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Currently, in Colville Lake there are 45 to 50 students enrolled this year. About 10 of those students have dropped out for one reason or another. They are citing that the fact that they cannot concentrate in the small building shared by all grades, considering that kindergarten and Grade 1 are housed in a separate building.
So, imagine the size of this room. You have well over 40 students all trying to reach their grade potentials. This is why Colville Lake is asking for partnership with this government so that they can build a new school, a proper school so that we do not see more than 10 students dropping out of school this year. That’s a crisis. We should be stepping up, letting the community know that we care, going to that community and stopping the students from dropping out. Unbelievable.
Is the Minister willing to work with the community in a partnership to see how we can stop students from dropping out but, more importantly, to see how they can build a new school in Colville Lake?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The community of Colville Lake, the leadership have met with my staff as well. The band requested assistance from ECE to provide a class D estimate for a larger school to be completed with a full-size legal gym. So that’s an area that we are working on with the community. There’s also a request for full O and M costs to run the expanded facility.
As I stated, there’s been follow-up from my department on August 17, 2015. The Colville Lake leadership met with my staff to talk about a P3 partnership. We’re in support, in principle, of how it’s going to look. Whenever a proposal comes in on a P3 project, I would have to present it to my Cabinet colleagues. That is part of the process that we use, and once that happens, then I’ll notify the Member that we are moving forward on this. Mahsi.
The families of the students that have dropped out of school for one reason or another are saying that the small building that is shared by all the grades, they cannot concentrate in that school. Colville Lake is looking for a solution. This should be up there and making the headlines. Ten students or more have dropped out of Colville Lake’s school, citing that the building is not adequate. These are the results of the situation in Colville Lake.
How can this Minister, since we have 20 days or so left in our government, move this to the next government citing this as an emergency crisis situation in Colville Lake and that they need to have a new school as soon as possible and start building their partnerships with Colville Lake?
First and foremost, I have to commend Colville Lake leadership exploring options on how they can build the new school. Obviously, we are very interested. There has been a process that we go through with any capital infrastructure here in the Northwest Territories. Part of that is Colville Lake. The Member has been asking questions in the House, as well, and I’m fully aware of that. There are pressing issues, as well, that we are faced with, but this is an area that we are currently exploring with the leadership of Colville on how the P3 can work.
Once a proposal is submitted, then we need to discuss that as Cabinet and how we can push that forward. We are always exploring and encourage business partners to provide some business opportunities such as this particular P3 project that we are currently discussing within my department.
One of the factors of these 10 or more students who have dropped out for one reason or another in Colville Lake could be because we don’t have a proper school to educate them. Because of this situation and working with Colville Lake, the Colville Lake Education Council and the Sahtu Board of Education have cut this year’s budget by cutting out high school teachers. There are no high school teachers in Colville Lake. This is why the community, chief and council are pushing strong that they get a proper school in Colville Lake. This has to stop, Mr. Speaker.
What is the Minister going to do within the life of this government to push this initiative into the next government?
That is information that we are either waiting for or is arriving on my desk on the Colville Lake P3 project. We have met with the Sahtu leadership. The chief of Colville was obviously part of the process, as well, on having a new school identified for Colville Lake. I’m focusing on how we can move forward. Once a proposal is submitted to my attention, then an immediate discussion needs to happen on how we can move forward on that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask this Minister, given the situation in Colville Lake where 10 or more students have dropped out citing their own reasons, within the life of this government is he seeing this as a crisis in Colville Lake? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake with officials and the Sahtu Education Board to stop the students leaving the school by the time this government is finished? Can the Minister commit to going to Colville Lake to say he’s going to do something? Is that something I can look forward to from this Minister?
Obviously, my department needs to work very closely with the Sahtu Education Council as well. We have been working with them and the Colville Lake School. This is not new to us. We are fully aware of it. I will commit to getting back to the Member as soon as we have that information and we have deliberations. The next step, once that occurs, I will immediately follow up with the Member.
Again, the Sahtu leadership and the representatives have been working very closely with Colville Lake along with my department. We are going to push them forward as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I raised the issue of the Yellowknife Day Care situation here that’s in a GNWT-owned building. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about why he’s forcing them out of that particular building by July 31st of next year. Furthermore, what is in there in terms of flexibility considering the circumstance of the single point that 55 children have nowhere to go? That also means it impacts the parents as well as the more than dozen staff that work there. I want to first start off with why is the department forcing this daycare to find somewhere else to operate?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This Yellowknife Day Care Association has been given a minimal of two years’ notice of the particular building. In mid-2014, ECE indicated to the daycare that they needed to consider alternative accommodation because of the age of the building. Also, in mid-2015, just recently my department also met with the daycare again to get an update of their efforts to find an alternative accommodation. On July 31, 2016, that’s when we are giving them a date to find an alternative solution. They are expeditiously looking for options as well. My department has been working very closely with them and we will continue to push that forward.
Well, let’s go down that little path about his office diligently working with them. They only received formal notice a couple days ago on this particular initiative. They’ve been approached even not that long ago to say, well, let’s kick them out in March, but I think someone understood that little kids walking with small lunch bags and suitcases and maybe boxes that are probably bigger than them looking for a place to go is probably not the right public image they want.
In short, the daycare says no one from ECE is working with them. They’ve said, “Hey, July 31, there’s the door, be out, find your own place.” What is the department really doing when he says they’re doing something, because they don’t know, nobody there knows. We need real facts, not just platitudes about we care about kids, we’ll do stuff about kids. I want to see actions and results.
That’s absolutely not true. My department has been meeting with the Yellowknife Day Care Association on numerous occasions. Since mid-2014, we’ve been meeting with them, giving them options to consider and working with them. We have provided some assistance from my department so they can explore other options as well. We will continue, again, working with the organization to find an alternative solution as well.
I could go on at length how the president of the association had told me how the old DM and the present DM met with them and told them they’re out the door and they have to figure it out on their own. But you know what? If all we’re going to do here is point fingers, we haven’t solved a darn thing about the daycare spaces that will be in serious crisis about it.
Let’s go to the next problem, which is what is the department really going to do to help them? Can they help them in the same way we helped the folks in Inuvik, who deserved and needed good help? This government has been known to provide lease money. It’s been known to provide mortgage money. Heck, we could even extend the building lease or we could even give them the building lease. Wait a minute. I’m doing all the job for the Minister here. Somebody on that side of the House needs to provide solutions to the daycare. Please, give me some solutions.
I’m just reiterating that it’s been two years in the making. I have stated that July 2016 is the date that has been given to them. Two years in the making. Within that two years there have been several meetings where the Member may not be fully aware of. I have the facts. I have the information here that I can share with the Member if he wishes. These are the dates that I have that my department has met with them. Again, we are working with them. We just met with them last week to try and find some alternative solutions. My department is working with the YK Daycare Association and will continue to do so.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has done nothing but cause frustration with me. That is because all he’s talked about is, sure, we’ve met with them and I can provide you the dates and good things like that. I keep wanting to know what are you going to do. The daycare, yesterday, I believe, sent out an e-mail to all their parents. I believe they, as they do in daycare, they put the letter in the bag for the kids to make sure they take it home so the parents aren’t surprised. All those parents have been informed. Fifty-five parents have been informed that this daycare’s history, life story and journey is coming to an end.
I want to hear what the Minister is going to do, not talk about meeting, meeting, meeting. I think we are all getting tired of that answer.
Is the Minister working to provide a location, money, lease guarantees, mortgage guarantees, to help these kids out? Mr. Speaker, two daycares are the same. We have to make sure this doesn’t hit a crisis. Thank you.
I have already answered. We are working with the YK Day Care Association to find an alternative solution. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services following up on my Member’s statement. We have been waiting for several years for the long-promised territory-wide midwife program. People are starting to question whether this government is really serious about implementing one. We get assurances, but so far little action. We do not have any idea what this territorial program is currently looking like. I want to ask the Minister, to start with, what is the status of the program and where are we in the process to implement it? Mahsi.
