Mr. Speaker, I came to session with a lot of things to talk about, but I have to keep asking questions about this bridge, because that’s what the people want. They want answers.
I think everyone understands that the money that has been spent to date on the bridge — the $9 million — has been by way of a loan which was guaranteed by this government. But I want to move on to the larger issue of the loan to build the bridge, which is being secured by the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.
I want to ask the Premier if our government is in fact guaranteeing that loan. If things go wrong and the loan is defaulted on, whose responsibility is the over $140 million — the $160 million — loan that is being secured by the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation? Who is responsible for it?
Mr. Speaker, the Member in this House a number of days ago talked about the facts of where we are involved, why we are involved, questioning as well, as was stated in the House, that the government is backstopping this through the concession agreement. But there are limitations.
We’re not guaranteeing the large loan. We’ve guaranteed the $9 million, which will be paid out once the dollars flow from the lending partners. We are involved through the concession agreement, through the overall indemnification of the lenders.
So in fact, we are co-signing the loan with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and indemnifying the corporation with the lenders, which is kind of a fancy way, a different way, of saying that in fact our government is backstopping. We are the guarantors of the loan should something go wrong.
If that is the case, then, we are way out on a limb on this project. I need the people to understand. I need the public to understand where we’re at on that.
So will the Premier please confirm that when he says we are there as a government to indemnify the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation if the loan is defaulted on, it is in fact like guaranteeing the loan?
Furthermore, I’d like to know if that $160 million — or whatever the amount of the loan turns out to be — is calculated into our $500 million borrowing limit as a government.
Mr. Speaker, the total amount of the project that is being financed by the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation doesn’t fall onto our books because as the project is established, it is the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation that is seeking the money and going to lenders. We are a part of it, yes. As has been said in this House, as has been laid out from the start through a number of factors — that is, the toll structure — it is also a part of the fact that we’re taking money on an annual basis that we put into the ice-road crossing and the ferry crossing
As well, as was made known months before the last election, the government would also, once we did not get confirmation from the federal government, have to bump another couple of million dollars on an annual basis to make this project a go. That was discussed and was known since the days of the 15th Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier a few days ago committed in this House to putting together an estimate of what it would cost for us to terminate this agreement to proceed with the Deh Cho Bridge. A few days have now passed. I’d like to know where we’re at on that evaluation on what it would cost to terminate this agreement.
Mr. Speaker, I was hoping that we would have it today, but it is being worked on as we speak.
Mr. Speaker, because the Premier so freely said that this information was known to the 15th Assembly, I’d like to ask him if he’s willing to produce any proof that Members of this House knew all these facts which are now just coming out. I mean, I’m finding out stuff every day on the Deh Cho Bridge project that I didn’t know before.
I’d like to now ask the Premier if he will lay some proof on the table that Regular Members of this House were aware of what was going on. We didn’t even know the concession agreement was going to be signed on September 28. That is out there.
Mr. Speaker, I guess if nothing else, we have to acknowledge the Member’s passion to ensure that her questions get asked on a regular basis from the 15th Assembly into the 16th Assembly.
The fiscal plans for this project were known. We can provide a chronology of these things that happened. We could even look at Hansard when questions were asked by the same two Members about this specific project: of the parameters, of the additional money the Government of the Northwest Territories is willing to put into this project that is over and above the ferry contract, the ice-road crossing. That’s been known. The guarantee that was in place: that’s been known because that’s been in place for quite a number of years. So it’s public, the fact that the questions have been raised in this House.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, the question about “Why was it signed three days before an election?” is one of concern to Members who’ve carried on, but the fact is that if the Members in the last Assembly had the support to cut the project, they could have cut the project. They didn’t.
Now let’s get on with work, because we’ve got to start building the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
