David Ramsay

I thank the Minister for that and I’m glad to hear that’s the case. It’s interesting, I guess, when you start talking about the deficiencies, and again I want to be as clear as I can be, the Minister I believe I heard him talk about another one of the deficiencies as being compaction and to me that would address the approaches, both north and south, that that work was previously done and that was one of the deficiencies. I understand we’re paying again an additional $4 million under the new contract to address the deficiencies on both of those approaches. Is this work that we’ve already paid...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to continue on with some questions that I had earlier. First of all, I had a question about when we were here during the last sitting of the House and it kind of touched a nerve with the Minister of Transportation and that was the fact that ATCON had gotten the contract for $165 million and weren’t bonded to perform that work. I know they have a line of credit. The government had access to a line of credit for ATCON’s work and performance on that job, but I’m just wondering what assurance, and I think I’ve heard the Minister say this, but I want to get...

I think perhaps we’re getting somewhere. I hope people are getting an understanding of why it is that I am hesitant to support this $165 million. I mean, this rock didn’t meet the standards but somebody decided to dump it into the river anyway. What other issues are out there that didn’t meet the standard that are going to come back and get us or have the potential to come back and get us? Obviously if this rock didn’t meet the standards, somebody’s got to be responsible for dumping it off that temporary bridge into the Mackenzie River where most of it was, like I said, of a diameter where it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wasn’t going to get into a history lesson here but perhaps just to go back a little bit, if we look back, and it’s hard… I know the Minister of Transportation said the blame has to be shared around a number of people on this, and if I can just call it like I see it, there are two guys sitting at the table here, both were Members of the previous Cabinet, and if you want to get a little bit of a history lesson, you know, the Finance Minister, former Finance Minister, the Chair of the FMB, and the Minister who would have approved the concession agreement in the dying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously something happened to spook the lenders. I’d like to know if the Minister knows exactly what that was. We had the Minister come before us requesting that the government approve and the Members approve $15 million in a supplementary appropriation to get that money flowing from the lenders. That wasn’t the case. Obviously we are here this week looking at a supplementary appropriation for the full amount. I’d like to ask the Minister why that was and what happened to the lenders in between those two dates that they decided that us in good faith approving $15...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’m going to again discuss the Deh Cho Bridge Project. I’d like to thank the government for providing the technical briefing to the media yesterday, although I still don’t understand why it had to be held downtown in a boardroom when we have a dedicated meeting room here at the Legislature, and it should have been held with the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Finance there to answer questions.

Mr. Speaker, this was a technical briefing introducing some new members of the project management team to the media. The briefing lacked any clear and concise...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From discussions I’ve had with constituents, there’s no training currently for P2s in the Northwest Territories when it comes to mine training. They have to leave the Territory and go to Ontario or other jurisdictions to receive the training. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister, would the government be looking at creating a mine training school or something to that effect here in the Northwest Territories in the near future? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it only makes sense to me that if there are any residents here in the Northwest Territories that require training, the requisite training to be employed at a producing diamond mine, that they get the training here in the Northwest Territories and are employed here in the Northwest Territories. There’s much more likelihood that they would continue to live in the Northwest Territories while working at the mine. I’m just wondering if the Minister could just elaborate a little bit on how exactly the government is going to work, his department and other government departments and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, the contract with Ruskin was signed off I believe just yesterday. Considering that contract has been signed off, I’m wondering why the government is reluctant to let the public know the details behind their relationship with the lenders and the disposition financially of this project.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance what would an additional $165.5 million do to our debt wall and our ability to borrow for other projects.