Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. About a year ago I asked the Minister of Transportation some questions and they were based on a commitment from the previous Minister of Transportation, a commitment he made in December of 2011, and I need to ask those questions again. The questions are around the review or analysis or a comprehensive review of the Deh Cho Bridge.
My first question to the Minister is: What is the status of the review, the analysis, the comprehensive investigation of the bridge project?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few deficiencies on the Deh Cho Bridge that we are continuing to repair. We believe that the bridge is very, very close to addressing all the deficiencies, although we will probably continue to always do a little bit of work on the bridge. After that, my understanding is that there was a commitment to do a retrospective analysis of how the construction of the bridge went. At this point we are looking at the possibility of doing that.
Thanks to the Minister for his comments. It was on February 13, 2014, when I asked the Minister whether or not the work on the bridge was completed, and his answer: “There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge.” I’m a little surprised to hear that now there are deficiencies and we can’t start this analysis, this investigation, one that was supposed to be completed almost two years ago now.
To the Minister: He says now we have deficiencies and maybe then we’re going to start this retrospective analysis. When can we expect results from this analysis?
I’m just looking at what is currently happening on the bridge. There are a few things that have to be completed on the bridge and that’s from the original contract still today. After that, we are going to look at the analysis, a retrospective analysis that was committed in the House by the Minister of Transportation, and we will seriously look at that commitment.
As soon as the work is completed, which should be any time now, I will talk to the department and we will see about looking at starting the retrospective analysis.
Thanks to the Minister. This has been a very, very long time coming. We are four years now, well, not quite four years, but we’re three and a half years anyway from when the commitment was made. This was supposed to be completed in 2013. We’re now in 2015.
I’d like to know from the Minister why has it taken so long for this to get started, because I gather it hasn’t even yet started.
One of the things that I have been discussing with the department has been the value of a retrospective analysis and determining whether or not it is beneficial to do a retrospective analysis. We have a functional bridge that is doing what it’s intended to do. It was built within the allowable budget that was agreed to in the House. We’re looking at that and we’re determining whether or not there is some value. I realize that the Members want to see a retrospective analysis. I am trying to determine whether or not there is some value in that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a little hard to be short when the Minister is questioning the value of this analysis. This was a P3 project which went from a P3 project to not a P3 project which was fraught with problems and cost us all kinds of money.
To the Minister: It’s not the value of the bridge itself, it’s looking at the process and the process that broke down and determining why it broke down and what we can do to make it better. Why will he not consider that instead of the value of the bridge? Thank you.
Thank you. The department’s opinion is that we would look at the value of it and if we think that we can do retrospective analysis fairly efficiently and not at a great cost to the government, we will do the analysis. The Member is right; we have not started on that, but if we make a determination that we think it is a valuable piece of information that will help us in the future and not just being done to show what has happened but something that has been done so we can learn from it, then we will do that analysis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
