Mr. Speaker, over the course of the weekend, while out and about in Yellowknife and in phone calls I have received in my office, I’ve heard from Northerners who seriously question if we need a $160 million bridge over the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. I know the government is worried about our liability if we don’t proceed with the bridge. Obviously the government is not worried enough to have obtained a legal opinion they could share with us, detailing the potential extent of that liability.
Mr. Speaker, I’m worried about our liability if we do proceed with the bridge. The cost-benefit analysis that was finally posted on the Transportation web site isn’t really anything to brag about. I don’t know who wrote it, but no wonder they didn’t want to give us a copy of it, despite many requests. It doesn’t represent a normal kind of due diligence and analysis that would precede a project of this magnitude. I’d be curious to know if that’s the information they took to the lender when they tried to borrow the money to build the bridge. I’d be very surprised if that particular cost-benefit analysis would have been used in making a case to borrow that kind of money.
I’m at a loss to understand the lack of leadership in protecting our government’s interests in managing this project. I have many questions about this project still, in spite of the assertion by someone in the newspaper that we’ve had “dozens of briefings.”
What has the $9 million been spent on to date that’s been guaranteed by our government? The person who is defending this project in today’s newspaper has been on the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation’s payroll since the corporation’s inception.
There are so many things asserted in there that I just don’t understand. How could the previous shareholder pulling out of the project cause the project to collapse? That’s one of the assertions that’s made. There is no minimum required; there’s no minimum for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. All there is, is a maximum amount of equity. So how could another shareholder pulling out have possibly caused the bridge project to collapse?
The contractor stepped up the day before the deadline. It was in their interest to do so. If there was no minimum equity threshold, why was it in their interest to do so? It wasn’t going to stop the project even if the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation had only put up $2 million.
The article goes on to say that there’s a couple of people just trying to mess it up. Well, Mr. Speaker, I have better things to do than try to mess up people’s plans. I have a duty and an obligation as a Member of this Assembly to ask these kinds of questions. I’m sorry if they mess up someone’s plans. Thank you.
