David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I can advise the Minister that it is well over a million dollars that we have spent on consultants and contractors to work on the file of the Deh Cho Bridge project.

I am wondering if the Minister can supply the House with the reason why the Government of the Northwest Territories would bear the full cost of consultants and contractors looking at the Deh Cho Bridge project when the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation should be responsible for that level of work.

I did the math. It adds up to $242 million. It’s $4.5 million a year indexed over 35 years. It comes out to an investment of $242 million. That’s the real math. That’s the real math, Mr. Speaker.

Interjection.

I thought I heard what I heard. Again, I’ll have to read Hansard again tomorrow when it comes out to see exactly what it was the Premier had said.

I was watching earlier when the Premier mentioned that…. You know, this might not have been caught in Hansard, but he said that I was misleading the House because he pointed at me and said I was responsible for the $242 million figure.

Interjection.

Yes, I do, Mr, Speaker.

Mr. Minister, what immediate actions will you be taking to improve the morale and the overall functionality and credibility of the Department of Human Resources?

Mr. Speaker, all of the items I’ve listed here in my previous questions are the realities that exist today in the Department of Human Resources. All of the MLAs on this side of the House, or most of them, have received disturbing stories from constituents on the realities of working at or receiving services from the Department of Human Resources.

Is the Minister of Human Resources aware of the realities within the Department of Human Resources and the concerns of staff and the public?

Mr. Speaker, I've got some questions again today for the Minister of Human Resources.

The first question is: are micromanagement, retribution and dictatorial leadership effective ways of leading healthy and functional organizations or departments?

Mr. Speaker, well, if the Minister is adamant that’s the case, how come the last government and how come this government isn’t going back out to stakeholders and trying to find out exactly what the building of the Deh Cho Bridge will do to the cost of living here in the North Slave Region? How come they haven’t gone out and done that and talked to stakeholders, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to speak today about the reduction and reinvestment exercise currently being undertaken by the government.

The Premier has said that this is a new way of doing business, and indeed it is. I agree with the government taking a look at spending. As I've said, our current spending levels are not sustainable, and something needs to happen.

Whether, in fact, this is the right approach is debatable. What I am having difficulty with is how the government is entering into this whole reduction and reinvestment scheme without getting a baseline or an analysis done of information first...

Mr. Speaker, that Co-op study, the one that was done with local retailers, that was in 2002–2003. A lot has changed since then, Mr. Speaker. The price of gas has gone up tremendously. People can’t afford to heat their homes here in Yellowknife.

Everything that comes across that bridge, Mr. Speaker, is going to cost more. Why is it going to cost more? Because there’s going to be a toll put on transportation or transport trucks that are going across that bridge, and the cost is going to be passed on to consumers here in Yellowknife, in Behchoko, and in the rest of the North Slave Region.

And...

Mr. Speaker, one question that hasn’t been answered in all of this is how much staff time the Department of Transportation has put into the Deh Cho Bridge project at the expense of other projects around the Territory.

I’d like to ask the Minister to commit to getting this House a detailed analysis of how much staff time has been spent on the Deh Cho Bridge project.