Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation getting back to my Member’s statement and also in reference to the Minister’s statement that he made earlier today.
I’d like to ask, given the fact that the Deh Cho Bridge Project was a partnership originally with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, much of the information for the public and for Members of the House was shrouded in a great deal of secrecy. That’s not the case anymore, Mr. Speaker, as the government has taken on full control of that project. I’d like to ask the Minister how the government is going to get all the information about the project so that the public can see all the relative information on the project. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my position on the Department of Transportation’s project, and that includes the Deh Cho Bridge, is one of transparency. We’ve taken all avenues to provide information to the Members of this House. We continue to look for ways to communicate with the general public. We plan to incorporate a newsletter into our communications on the bridge, we’re also working towards developing a website that will have all information around this project, and we want to have an on-site camera where people can patch into the site and be able to view construction as it proceeds and moves forward. So those are some of the things that we want to be able to do for the general public. We also want to commit to the Members, which I have already, to provide regular updates either through e-mails or face-to-face committee meetings. Thank you.
In the Minister’s statement he says the intent is to highlight all the positive accomplishments associated with the bridge. I’m wondering will those positive accomplishments include updated status of the construction audit, updated revenue forecasts, updated financial information on that bridge project? Thank you.
We plan to update all the positive aspects. The Member’s been doing a good job highlighting some of the negative ones, but we also have to flag those. There are a number of audits that are going on. There is a technical audit that we have embarked on and we have committed to the Members that we would share that information. We’re about halfway through that. We have a lot of documents. We have a lot of information to be able to sift through and see where things are at and we hope to conclude that in another three to four weeks. Of course, we have the Auditor General that has been invited by motion in this House to do an audit and discussions have been taking place. Mr. Speaker, we commit to providing all the information when it’s timely, possibly to the Members of this House and to the general public, good or bad. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister says these things are negative. Mr. Speaker, I disagree with him. It’s reality. He might call them negative. I think it’s reality. And the reality is, Mr. Speaker, this government and every government for the next 35 years is going to have to figure out a way to pay for this Deh Cho Bridge Project. That’s the reality; stark reality, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister, when the Government of the Northwest Territories makes the decision to remove itself from the concession agreement, what exactly does that entail and at what cost to the government? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, some of these challenges have been very negative and some of them have been challenges that were translated as being negative, so I am just reaffirming that. We are at work right now to conclude a lot of different issues that have been out there. There is a lot of review that is taking place. We have stepped in as the project developer. We have stepped in as the delivery agent of this project. We are working to conclude a number of things that are still on the drawing board. That includes some of the outstanding claims and other issues such as dealing with the concession agreement.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he has an estimate on what it is going to cost the Government of the Northwest Territories and the taxpayers here to get out of that concession agreement. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is going to cost us a lot less than what it would cost us to stay in the concession agreement. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
