Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier. We’re about to head out, here, for a while, and we’ve heard the Premier talk about a potential project to build a highway down the Mackenzie Valley. There have been proponents out there who have suggested this should be done on the basis of a P3 project. I’d just like to ask the Premier if he’ll assign any contracts for a highway down the Mackenzie Valley before we get back in September.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Interjections.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we could just have a contract put on our desk, we would look at it.
Realistically, though, we know much work needs to be done on the Mackenzie Valley Highway process. I’ve had discussions with my Cabinet colleagues, as well as shared some of the vision of that with the Prime Minister at the Western Premiers’ Conference, and we’ll continue to build on that.
Hand in hand with that concept, I think the Deh Cho Bridge project gave us clear evidence that we need something more solid in our policy about P3 projects than references in the Financial Administration Act, which would also cover the leasing of photocopiers. I’d like to ask the Premier: where are we at in developing a policy that would allow us to enter into P3 projects on a more solid footing?
Mr. Speaker, we need to pay attention to that file. In fact, we need to renew it. I guess that is a way of putting it. At one point the Government of the Northwest Territories did venture into the P3 area. That first movement wasn’t very satisfactory, so we’ve agreed that FMBS would take charge in that area, as it relates to financial matters. Hopefully, as we come back together in the fall, we can show Members the work that’s being done on it and provide an update at that time.
Mr. Speaker, again, as we learned through the Deh Cho Bridge project, when you have a proponent that is a private corporation, transparency becomes an issue, as does our government’s ability to control some matters like procurement.
I would like to ask the Premier if any policy developed by this government that is related to public–private partnerships would include an element that would speak to the issue of northern participation.
Mr. Speaker, an interest we always have as the Government of the Northwest Territories is seeing a successful venture happen and the benefits staying in the North. As we develop this and bring this back to Members, we hope we can lay out how it’s coming together.
One of the issues with the P3 process — even the federal government and other jurisdictions have had to wrestle with this — is that a true P3 would put the majority of risk on the private sector. As a government we would have to see how far we go that way. One of our exercises in our last initial round in the late ’90s, I believe, was to try to pull some of that control back as a government, and that skewed the process a bit. Again, as we come forward with that, we’ll be glad to share with Members what work has been done and continue to work to revise it.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would concur that with the P3 projects, whether it’s the Deh Cho Bridge or the Taltson Hydro Expansion or whatever it is we’re talking about, certainly our government has taken the majority of the risk. Therefore, I think we should be in a position to make up the rules. I’d like to ask the Premier if he would also agree to try and engage northern industry in any policy that’s developed, to ensure we have something very concrete when it comes to maximizing the benefits to Northerners through northern participation in any major capital infrastructure project.
Mr. Speaker, for any changes we’ll make or look at making, we’ll be sitting down with Members to look at what work has been done. At that point we’d be prepared to expand that further to our business community and people across the North. We need to sit down and come up with a bit of an action plan looking at where things are coming together, sharing that with Members and then discussing the next steps from there — much the same process we will be following with the Business Incentive Policy work.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
