Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 86, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20222023 to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. First reading of bills. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 86, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20222023, be read for the second time.
This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I am going to be voting against this supplementary appropriation. It contains a $27.75 million settlement on the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link.
The original cost of this project, as we learned yesterday, Mr. Speaker, was $81.3 million. It has now ballooned to $194 million. That's more than twice the original cost estimate. And I think part of the problem, Mr. Speaker, is that this was done as a P3, and P3s lead to these kind of unexpected, unanticipated, conclusions. And this isn't the first time we've had to have supplementary appropriations brought forward to this House to settle these really complicated arrangements and deals.
So I oppose this, and I think that in approving this supplementary appropriation, it really kind of rewards poor project management. If there had been any effort on the part of the Department of Finance to try to absorb some of these costs internally, find other areas of efficiencies and so on, I might be a little bit more generous in this. But I'm just not prepared to allow this expenditure of money for a project that can and probably should have been done differently. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to be voting against this supplementary appropriation. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, P3s have a purpose, and I've always said that in this House. They're you know, you're not using capital dollars to advance something in small communities or regional centres, and hopefully not always in the capital. I am I don't like what happened. That was inherited by another they inherited this with another government. And, you know, governments have to inherit bad files sometimes. I've inherited a lot of bad files when I was at Salt River. And I will be voting for the supplementary for that reason because I'm very much about making sure that we move forward with this government in an economic way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday when we were looking at this bill and also talked about it, you know, we you know, in my riding, I've been here for just over a year, and I put forward ideas about how we could try to work to improve the lives of our people in our communities. I talked about winter road. I talked about housing, infrastructure. Again, you know, when I sat here yesterday listening to adding all these sups in terms of increasing these budgets and everything else, no problem. You know, it's like, we've been, you know, bang every time these guys want money in all these other departments, they come back to us and ask us for more money. And it's just back and forth, you know, not a problem. But when I have stuff I asked stuff for my riding, and I've been asking, and the train left the station. I even told the Premier, throw some luggage on there, you know, a couple million dollars for a winter road for my riding. Nothing. Housing infrastructure in terms of inspecting all the homes in my riding, nothing. So here we are again, nothing. So now you're asking for my support, you know. And on sups like this, I can't support this motion. And I'm going to vote against it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do have issues with this as well too because we've been advocating we've been talking here in the House since I got on, about housing. We have housing crisis in small communities. We need a lot of housing. And improving the health care system in the small communities. We have a lot of aging infrastructure as well, especially in Tlicho region. And I advocated, and my previous MLA too, advocated for a new school in Tlicho region, and we have issues with youth suicide. So with all this, I don't think I'm going to support this bill as well myself. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 86 has had second reading.
Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister responsible for Finance.
