Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the Opportunities and Involvement Agreement negotiated by the government with the community of Fort Providence in regards to the termination of the concession agreement for the Deh Cho Bridge Project.
I would like to begin by asking the Minister if he could explain to this side of the House and to the public why was it was necessary to enter into an agreement with the community for $7 million over the next 35 years because of the termination of that concession agreement, if you could explain that to us. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of reasons that we felt it was necessary to sign off on a couple of agreements. The first was a letter agreement and also the opportunities agreement that the Member is raising. Of course, one of the biggest reasons was to ensure that we could continue to work with the community and also apply resources so that the community can stay involved.
It was quite obvious through our discussions with the community that they wanted to continue to be involved with this project right to the end. They wanted to be able to derive benefits from it. As a government, we had our discussions and agreed that should happen. We also laid it out for the Members that we would be signing off on this agreement. It also helped us to access the equity that they had produced for this project. We didn’t want them to fully subscribe to it, as we wanted to move away from the concession agreement. This allowed us to have legal termination of that agreement.
We also were in a position with the agreements in place to address some of the concerns that were in front of us, some complaints that were coming forward. We also avoided the dispute resolution process that would have tied us up. It would have tied us up in litigation for some time. We probably would have had a very lengthy legal battle that would have cost a lot of money. We also were able to move away from a lot of the financial commitments we had that were part of the concession agreement.
Overall, Mr. Speaker, there are a number of reasons, but basically the reasons were to allow the community to stay part of this project and also to ensure that the project would move forward on a timely basis and we didn’t come to a stop, which would have cost a lot of money. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, all along, this project was to be a partnership between the community and the Government of the Northwest Territories. It would seem to me, from what I have seen, the economics on this bridge aren’t good. If it is operating on a deficit basis year to year, I would suggest if the Minister is shopping for new paint, he could find some red paint to paint that bridge because it is going to be mired in red ink for the foreseeable future.
Here we are as a government negotiating a deal with a community to guarantee them $200,000 a year. How is that a fair partnership if the Government of the Northwest Territories, the rest of the taxpayers in the Northwest Territories are expected to pay for that deficit? Meanwhile, the deal negotiated with the community guarantees them a win out of this. Mr. Speaker, how is that fair to the rest of the taxpayers in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure there is a deficit the Member is referring to and if this bridge was clouded in red ink, I am sure the Member has reached into his can of paint of doom and gloom and painted this project that colour on his own.
Mr. Speaker, there is no indication right now that there will be a deficit. The traffic volumes are going to allow for us to accommodate all the debt on this bridge. In fact, if the traffic volumes go up and we start to see more projects come on stream, we will probably have some significant surplus on this that will be applied back to some of the costs incurred and into the government coffers, which will make it a very popular project, I assume. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister could table the last two financial projections on that bridge I had asked him to put on the Transportation’s website the other day, because those don’t paint a very rosy picture of the financial outlook on that project. Mr. Speaker, it is not all doom and gloom. I am speaking from facts his department has in fact given me.
I would like to ask the Minister why the Opportunities and Involvement Agreement is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2012, and not November 1, 2011. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the intention was to have the agreement to allow for a monthly payment during the construction season where we work with the community. They have an office set up to provide us support and to provide us all kinds of responsibilities that help us move forward, including having a presence in the community. Once the contract is done, we would move forward into the new fiscal year with the agreement kicking in with the Opportunities Fund for the remaining 35 years. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the dates have nothing to do with or don’t coincide with when the construction of that project will finally be finished. My belief is it won’t be in November 2011, it will in fact be closer to April. That’s the point that I was trying to make there. I’d like to ask the Minister in closing, what exactly will the community be doing for this Opportunities and Involvement Fund? How are they going to be involved in this project?
Again the Member has demonstrated his attitude to this bridge by his predictions that it’s going to be past the deadlines that we’ve laid out for him. I’m not sure what he’s pointing at and using to measure this with. We still anticipate that this project is on schedule. The steel is en route. There’s a significant amount of steel that’s coming forward for the superstructure. There is the decking that will be following. Also the ‘A’ pylons. We expect the steel for the superstructure will be in place by March of this coming next calendar year. Things are going well, as much as that might upset the Member who has been painting this with his brush of doom and gloom.
We still feel it’s necessary to continue to have the community on side. There is a lot of support being provided. There are issues which probably would have put this project to a standstill if we didn’t resolve them, and we feel we’ve done that. We want to continue that partnership. We want the community to have opportunities to benefit from this project in terms of economics and having some resources to invest in that area.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
