Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up with some of the questions I had earlier for the Minister of Transportation in regard to the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I would like to just ask the Minister, the remaining balance on the work to be concluded on that project is roughly $90 million. I am just wondering, given the fact that the steel still hasn’t shown up in Fort Providence, is there any indication that the cost of building this superstructure on that bridge in the coming year or 18 months or whatever it is going to take, is going to cost more than the $90 million, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, there is no indication that we are going to see an increase in costs. I think the budget remaining for the bridge is around $60 million. Thank you
Mr. Speaker, if it does cost more than $90 million, obviously given winter construction on a project of that size and nature, and given the fact that it is steel that is going to be erected on that bridge, it would seem to me that, given the delays in the project, costs are going to be incurred. If they are incurred, is it the responsibility of the contractor or the Government of the Northwest Territories to pay any additional costs over $90 million? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is a hypothetical question at this point. We don’t anticipate that there is going to be any delay in the construction schedule. Right now there are 100 trainloads of steel coming from the south and will be unloaded on site. We expect to have a superstructure in by March. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in regards to the debt servicing on the bridge, at what point in time is the government liable for the almost $8 million in debt servicing if that project isn’t completed by November of next year? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is aware that there is a plan to service the debt. We need an average of at least 6,400 trucks to cross the bridge through the toll system and that would allow us to break even. Anything over that would allow us to have revenue or a profit. Anything under that would force us into a deficit situation.
There’s going to be years when the traffic volumes are up, there’s going to be years when the traffic volumes are down. For this coming year, we expect the traffic volume is going to be around 7,500 trucks or 8,000 and that’s not counting any other new developments such as the Gahcho Kue mine project, there’s also Seabridge, there’s also MGM Minerals and there are other initiatives that are out there that we haven’t factored in here. But our information from the mine industry tells us it’s going to be around 7,500 trucks up to 8,000. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just having trouble trying to understand the numbers. Previously the number that I had was a projected toll revenue of $5.1 million and the most recent the department has provided us was $3.2 million. They also said an increase to 7,100 trucks would result in another $650,000, which would put you at $3.8 million on annual revenue. So how did the numbers drop from the projected $5.1 million to a projected $3.2 million in annual tolls? Thank you.
The information the Member is referring to is information we are obligated to provide to committee as per the Bridge Act, where we have to provide a statement of funding sources and costs based on traffic volumes for that year. At this point, of course, everybody knows we’re not collecting tolls, so this is for information purposes only. Last year, if the information that was provided to committee showed that there were 4,000 trucks that crossed the bridge we had anticipated, we would have seen a small deficit. However, we know that’s not going to be the case. This coming year the traffic volumes are going up. The first information that came to us was 7,100 trucks. We’re up to now where we expect it would be up to 7,500 and maybe even further than that. The numbers are not firm, these are all estimates. Of course, we haven’t factored in all the unknowns as to the other projects that I referenced in my answer to the last question.
So this is all information that we’re obligated to provide at the end of every year and we’ll continue to do so. As we move forward, we’ll commit to doing that. Thank you.
