Bob Bromley

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I quite buy that. I am just wondering if we would have been able to take on a project like this if we had already been carrying this much debt and does that not get through to the Premier in terms of what some of the possible limitations he might consider as consequences of this project.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Dick Abernethy, father of my colleague here and resident of Weledeh. Welcome, Dick.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In honour of Aboriginal Languages Month I raise a few issues regarding not just a preservation but the growth and development in youth of aboriginal languages.

I met recently with two of my constituents and the Minister of ECE. The Minister reacted very positively to suggestions that are now being considered for action. The first major issue is the timely ability to get training of professional interpreters and translators. An interpreter/translator course is offered by Aurora College, but only two course credits are available each year. Because the full course complement is...

It’s interesting that the Minister mentions the budget this year. It was up over 7 percent. I think it was 7.5 percent, something like that. The projections the Cabinet has come up with here were 1 percent. I’m wondering how that fits with what the Premier has just said. The projections for next year are 2 percent. That’s exactly what I mean by unrealistic. If we’re going to go into this with those kind of ridiculous figures, we’re looking for real serious trouble. This $165 million on top of a 7 percent increase this year would equate to something like a 20 percent increase. This is not...

Thank you to the Minister for that. I’m really trying to develop some confidence here and I know this Minister knows that full and complete information is best. That’s what helps us develop a good relationship and confidence in the project. I’d appreciate it if that could continue.

I don’t want to pick away at this, but all things are completed and signed off except for and then there’s these exceptions that we always hear. I’m waiting to when we can really say that what we have on the ground is complete and safe and thorough and completed and paid for and we don’t have any liens or complaints...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to follow up on my colleague Mr. Ramsay’s discovery that this scour rock was inappropriate and apparently this has been recognized. I’m wondering who put it there and if there is a claim against them. This is the first I’ve heard of it.

I guess while I’m at it, what other things haven’t we heard about in terms of deficiencies? This would be a good time to bring that forward rather than using a crowbar or blunt-handled axe handle to try and get it out of the Ministers. This would be a good time to hear about the things we haven’t heard about it terms of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the risk of repeating some of what I’ve heard, I think for many aspects of this project many Members are on the same wavelength. I can’t believe even our government members here are feeling particularly good about this situation.

I think our first failure, in my mind, was the inability or lack of success at getting the government to determine what it would cost us to buy our way out of this project in the early days of the Assembly, as many of us explicitly and repeatedly requested. Nevertheless, we didn’t do that. We went forward and sure enough we’re where many...

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Premier appreciates or is a little more to it than he inferred in his first response there. I think there is a huge implication of carrying this much debt through messing up as we have done.

I have heard the government say, Mr. Speaker, that we are going to service this debt no problem, with less than 1 percent of our revenues and so on. Does that mean that we are going to continue to pay this debt down that we are now carrying on our books at this low rate so that we are going to be carrying the debt for 35 years as we slowly pay it down and be restricted in what we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier with regard to the Deh Cho Bridge Project. We are approaching our last year of the 16th Assembly. Here we are proposing to take on a considerable amount of debt for the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I am wondering what are the implications and the consequences to the 17th Assembly of carrying this much debt on to their backs in the future. Thank you.

Briefly, at our recent meeting the Minister took these issues, as I say, very seriously and committed to see how this situation can be improved. I’m grateful for this commitment and look forward to his proposals. Let’s all look at what’s working and what isn’t in our aboriginal language support programs and improve where needed. I look forward to reports of good progress on these issues. Mahsi.