Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've seen a number of proposals for some infrastructure projects that are going as P3s. These partnerships have often been criticized. Notably, in 2014 there was a report from the Ontario Office of the Auditor General that indicated there could be an awful lot of savings if government handled the projects themselves. As we're looking towards P3s, I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance why we are pursuing a P3 options, what the advantages are over government capital projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we like to think there is a number of advantages, one of them being the risk. There is a risk that goes onto the proponent through a P3 process. There's value for money. Before we determine whether we're going into a P3 process or not, we do have a deputy minister's committee that reviews it. Then the Minister will make a recommendation to the FMB, whether there's some merit going to P3 or not, once you do the balance of the positives and the negatives going towards a project rather than a traditional procurement process. But we think that it's a direction that more larger projects might go in the future. We've heard one of the directions that Canada would prefer, the jurisdictions as well. So there's a lot of value to it, and we'll continue to share all the information we have with committee as to some of the benefits of the P3 process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One of the challenges of being a territorial government versus a provincial or the federal government is we have a debt limit that's controlled by Ottawa and is capped. How do P3s interact with our debt limit? Can we find more flexibility through P3 financing through our own borrowing?
In a P3 project is just what we bookmark for the project that goes towards our debt limit. So, for example, if the project is worth -- let's use $100 million as an example. If we have to put in $50 million, well $50 million would go toward our debt limit. If we go through the traditional procurement services, then all the money that's bookmarked for that particular project will go towards our debt limit.
Thank you to the Minister for that answer. It seems that we do need to explore other options to suit our unique circumstances as a territory. If we're going to invest in infrastructure today, we need to look up those options so we can free up more time for investment. So it sounds like the Minister is doing that, and that's great, but how are we ensuring adequate oversight of P3 projects? Can the Minister provide honourable Members with some examples?
We find that this is a way to have our infrastructure dollars go further, and some of the risk being on the proponent. So I think there's some value there. As far as oversight, I'll used the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway for an example. We have an Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Oversight Committee that meets regularly and gets updates on the highway. So that type of oversight will continue for any of the other projects that we go through a P3 process; we get updated on Stanton quite regularly, we get updated on the Mackenzie fibre optic link quite regularly. So we have an enormous amount of oversight in these committees, and we feel that, in the future, this is the direction to, as I said before, stretch out our infrastructure dollars a lot more to get more projects for the residents of the Northwest Territories. It's something that we would continue to pursue, unless we have a compelling reason not to.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for obliging. I raise these questions because members of the public do have concerns about these P3s. So is there a way we could make P3s more transparent? I was really encouraged by the Minister of Public Engagement and Transparency's statement today. Is the Department of Finance working on a way to bring more of this information to light and allow the public to have a better sense of why we use P3s and why it's an effective tool for this government, and that they are being held accountable for the millions of dollars we're investing in them? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we do have a P3 policy that's readily available online. We might have to make it a little more accessible or put it right on the front page, because sometimes you have to navigate your way through the system to get at number of these policies. So we'll ensure that the policy itself is readily available if people want to have a look at it. But I think their big concern is not so much the policy, but the fact that this government wants to stretch our investments out a little further, get more projects for the communities across the Northwest Territories, because a lot of these people want to work. So, you know, we'll continue to do what we can to allow our infrastructure money to go a lot further.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
