Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask some questions on my Member’s statement on the Inuvik-Tuk Highway. I know that they’re sensitive negotiations, so my experience will tell me that I’ve got to be pretty general about my questions, so I will proceed that way.
Just in terms of why did the Minister of Transportation not advise Regular Members of the claims of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway in an expedient and timely manner? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a legal contract with the operator. The operator has a process in the contract to make a claim. We then have to determine whether or not we think that is a valid claim, and we are going through the process. We were advised on August 19th that they had run into some issues and had indicated that they would be making a claim on the contract, and we started working with the contractor to see if they had a legitimate claim and how the claim would be broken down from year to year. Thank you.
Thank you very much. He didn’t really speak to why he chose to not inform Regular Members for at least a couple of weeks afterwards. Nevertheless, how long does the Minister expect this process to take? Thank you.
We are working with the contractor right now and we’ve hired consultants to look at the contract, look at the claim, look at all of the cash flow, and it’s going to take at least a couple more weeks from this point before we have all the information, all the facts in order for us to make a decision. I would say it’s at least two weeks before we gather the data. How long we take to evaluate that depends on how much data we gather. Thank you.
I’d like to ask the Minister, will he commit to providing regular updates to Members of this House and our Priorities and Planning committee as the claims are evaluated over the next couple of weeks? Mahsi.
Yesterday when we were meeting with Priorities and Planning, we committed that we would give the Regular Members updates on a weekly basis as we move through this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Of course, timing is an issue because we’ll be heading to dissolution pretty soon. In fact, our sitting of this House ends, I believe, next Thursday.
I’d just like to ask the Minister, perhaps, how they will be proceeding should there be an acceptable claim. Because I believe, and I’m sure my colleagues will concur, that you need the consent of the Assembly. So, I’d like to ask him, how will he proceed? Can the ministry and the Cabinet defer any decision until the first sitting of the 18th Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Of course, we wish to evaluate the validity of the claim prior to dissolution of this Assembly; however, if that was to not happen, we’d have to follow the contract to see what provisions are in the contract right now and how much latitude we would have to be able to move forward with a claim and make sure that the work on the Inuvik-Tuk Highway would continue. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
