Mr. Speaker, my question is on the Deh Cho Bridge, for the Premier.
I’m wondering, in the list of liabilities that we want to protect ourselves from — hopefully, we’ve had some work done on ensuring that — has there been an assessment of the workforce that would be required for the bridge and some assurance that the workforce would come from the North?
I’m concerned at this time with the shortage of labour. Would we be pulling our workers from the mines to work on the bridge? What would that do to the mines and so on? What sort of assessment and assurances have been made that the workforce is here and will benefit our Northern workers?
Maybe I haven’t kept the Transportation portfolio, but specifically on that request, my information is that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has done that work in an evaluation of the type of skill sets they will need and are looking at what the people will need to help build this bridge.
Yeah, I understand that Transportation would have done some work there. I’m looking for some assurance that the benefits will accrue to us. I think that issue of migrant workers has been raised. We already know that we are shipping out $350 million a year because of that. We know that there’s a shortage of workers. I’m looking for some assurance that we’re not just, again, piling on these projects that benefit the rest of Canada while robbing resources from the North.
So what are we doing to ensure that we’re not exacerbating the migrant workforce problem? What assurances have we got?
Mr. Speaker, again, my understanding is that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has done work on the area of the amount of people they would need. From what I understand, approximately 100 people would be required at any given time.
They’ve looked at that skill set and where they could draw on that. As well, they’ve surveyed the communities in the region to look at the contractors that would be available to take up the work that will be required. So in the southern part of the Territory, Yellowknife as well, the contractors would be made to look at what is available for that construction period.
Yeah, I appreciate that. I guess the concern is liabilities, in particular, if the bridge is delayed. I think if you talk to many businesses in the North, their businesses have experienced a lot of delays. We are experiencing a lot of delays in our capital projects and infrastructure and so on. My constituents are raising their concern. They are seeing a bridge that is half-completed and sits there and takes twice as a long to build and so on.
Mr. Speaker, do we have liabilities, or do our costs increase if the period of construction extends significantly beyond the three years currently planned?
Mr. Speaker, as laid out in an earlier question, there is a number of factors that come into play when we look at trying to limit the liabilities that we could be party to. Some of the shared risk here is between the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, the construction company as well as the Government of the Northwest Territories because we’re seen as the backstop to this project, as Members have correctly pointed out.
So those liabilities, again, include, for example, an independent engineer to audit the construction parameters of this as well as some of the eligible costs that may be covered, or ineligible, that would put some of the risk back on the construction company as well as the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation to limit the risk of the G.N.W.T.
Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you for that response. I am concerned and will be interested in getting some more details on that.
I think I heard the Premier indicate earlier to Mrs. Groenewegen that he will be looking into what the costs would be for the G.N.W.T. to get out of this project or terminate the work. I’ll be interested in that. Is there a date when we can expect the estimate on that cost?
Mr. Speaker, one thing we have to realize is, as I discussed with Members, as the lawyers are doing their work, there is a time frame that they have to meet as well. That is coming up before the end of this month.
We can pull the work together as quick as we can and try to get a quick view of it from FMBS on what the potentials are there and try to come back within a couple of days to see what we’re able to provide.
