Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the first time in history, the NWT will have a bridge that crosses the Mackenzie and that’s a great thing. Although we are now reaping the benefits of a truly all-season road, which also includes the additional costs that the government promised would never happen, many citizens can’t help but keep asking, could the government have done this for less.
This Assembly approved an extra $10 million last spring to finish this project before the end of 2012, and as far as Minister Ramsay is concerned, that’s all water under the bridge for now. But the reality remains that this cost of the additional project could have gone on to status quo and would have cost us less, if not close to half. What would have allowed us to distribute the rest of the remaining construction process over the following year but instead we swallowed an additional $10 million in a one-lump-sum fee to the contractor so they could rush around the clock to increase the risk of the project but make sure they delivered it by November 2012.
May I remind this House that this additional $10 million – we already had a contract for it, so they didn’t actually need it – was just extra money. It could be defined, as many citizens have told me, was this an extra $10 million of slush or simply gravy? It’s funny that an additional $10 million carrot was dangled by Minister Ramsay to get this bridge done by last fall; but the fact is they already had a contract in place to complete it, so why the additional $10 million?
As we continued to needlessly negotiate a fixed contract, this reminds the other contractors out there who want to do government bidding on northern projects that all they have to do is just wait until we’re held over a barrel because that’s when we’re ready to pay more. The taxpayers pay more.
We could learn many lessons from the Deh Cho Bridge, and I would normally urge the department to do a thorough analysis. But, you know what? My expectations of hope of that being a reality are probably very few. The only way to get to the bottom of this is to call the Auditor General in and ask them about the likelihood of actually learning anything.
The NWT, as we all know, is contemplating major infrastructure. Do you think we’ve learned, once again, on how to do things properly? My expectations and hopes have certainly been dampened. If we avoid making further promises that we cannot keep, we can only then deliver full projects the way that they were meant to be, on time and on budget. We should stop diluting the process and be honest with Northerners.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
