Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on my colleague Mr. Krutko’s questioning on BIP. I’m unsure, though, whether I should ask the Minister responsible for the BIP or if I should ask Minister McLeod. I guess for today’s sake I could ask Minister Michael McLeod. If the government has made this decision to move forward on the application on capital projects, I’m wondering when that will be effective, if the Minister could answer that question for me.
The honourable Minister, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you. That is a very good question and a difficult one to answer. I guess it would depend on how much consultation is going to be required. Our target, from our committee, is to have a lot of these things come into play next year. We wanted to have some very good discussion with the committee about our recommendations, and we actually had hoped we would have the possibility of agreement to move our capital-approval process —that has been mentioned by the Premier — to the fall, which would allow us to start planning approval of capital projects in our fall session rather than in February or March. Some things we’d like to see happen sooner than others. For the BIP we don’t expect to have a decision for another year or so.
If it’s going to take a year, then I’m wondering why the Minister would stand up in the House yesterday and announce it if we are going to go through the consultation process and get out there and talk to stakeholders and talk to Regular Members on this decision to effect capital projects. I’m wondering if the Minister can answer this question: has the department or the government done any type of economic analysis to suggest what losses the government would have in the area of corporate taxes and the out-migration of people? There’s a big impact by making a decision like this, and I’m wondering if they’ve done any work in that regard.
Mr. Speaker, the Member knows full well that’s a very difficult area to measure. We will do some analysis, but whether or not we can measure the out-migration and take our best guess — I don’t know if we can go that far. We will do the analysis; that’s what we’re embarking on right now, and we will have ITI do some of that work.
As my colleague Mr. Krutko alluded to, there have been many studies. There have been lots of reports done and efforts made to find out the cost of this and the benefits. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel. What I want to find out is: is this a decision to save $245,000 and a couple of positions? What’s driving this decision? I’d like to ask the Minister that question.
Mr. Speaker, our fiscal reality, of course, is driving this. We have a huge infrastructure deficit. I think at last count, general estimations were well over $1 billion. As Members look at our capital budget of $140-some million, along with carry-over debt, it comes out to $200 million. It’s going to be tough to deal with that infrastructure. We have to do our business more efficiently. We have to have checks and balances in our capital process. BIP seems to have caught everybody’s eye and ear. I think we have to really look at what we’re planning to do. The Premier said fairly clearly in his budget speech that we would look at the BIP and its application to capital projects, but we’d also look at maintaining our commitment to local and northern purchasing. It’s those things we have to keep in mind. We need to have that discussion, and that’s what we plan to do.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As long as the cost-benefit analysis isn’t done after the fact, after this comes into effect — like the Deh Cho bridge, for example.
I’d like to get some reassurance from the Minister that before this becomes effective the government will come back to Regular Members and sit down with stakeholders in this area so we can work on this together and come up with solutions together rather than it just be implemented by the government.
The over-a-billion-dollar deficit I mentioned didn’t include the Deh Cho bridge or the Mackenzie Valley road. I would commit to the Members, and I think all my committee colleagues would commit, that we would share the information with the Regular Members on where we plan to go and the decisions we’re moving toward as the information comes in. Through ITI or with our work with the FMB we will commit to doing that and provide it to the committee and keep them updated.
The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
