David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I know the capital planning process — I believe it was $27 million that was earmarked for Stanton over the next few years — is one issue. The issue I’m getting to is that if you have a morale problem and you have an issue there with not enough space to conduct the services that our residents require, why would you exacerbate the situation by continuing to make decisions that turn patient lounges — and now, it looks like, the nursery — into office space? It pokes a red hot poker right into the eye of the health care professionals who work at Stanton when the departments make...

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

It’s not a new issue; it’s one that was raised during the length of the last government. It has to do with space utilization at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

As I mentioned in my statement, morale has been an issue. There’s been an HR plan that’s in the works. There have also been some questionnaires that have gone out to employees. One of the main themes that has come back is space utilization and the fact that health care professionals at the hospital are having to deliver services to patients in crammed and...

Mr. Speaker, that brings me to the question of where the information is on the project. The updated detailed cost-benefit analysis continues to be as hard to find as accountability and transparency in the process. Also, the concession agreement continues to be elusive. We need to ensure the public has confidence in us to make decisions in the best interests of the Territory.

No one Premier or cabinet should ever be able to commit the G.N.W.T. to this type of expenditure without the approval of the Members of this Legislative Assembly. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, it’s a substantial amount of government public dollars going into a project, and we can’t find out who the partners are. That’s par for the course with the project and with the process, and I think that’s something, again, that’s flawed.

I’m wondering if the Premier could commit to making some type of announcement on who the partners are in that project. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: perhaps the government should take a look, if there’s a guaranteed rate of return there…. And I don’t want to come out and say who that partner is, either. But maybe the Government of the...

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask some more questions of the Premier in regard to the Deh Cho Bridge process and project. It gets back to what I believe is a fundamental foundation for the reason for the project going forward during the life of the last government.

On a continual basis the Members of the last Assembly were told that benefits would accrue to the community of Fort Providence via the $5 million equity stake that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation would have in the project. It was a guaranteed rate of return, Mr. Speaker. That money was going to do some good things in Fort Providence, so the...

Mr. Speaker, it sounds to me that it’s a review of the process to review the process, so we’re actually going to think about how to do things so that we can try to do something. Maybe I’m a little bit mistaken in that analysis, but I’d like to again ask the Premier: who is going to do the review of the process, and when are we going to get some information on that work that’s been done? I just don’t want a high-level analysis done by the Department of Executive. I want something substantial, and I think the Audit Bureau should be involved.

Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up where my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen left in questioning the Premier on the Deh Cho Bridge project.

Now I want to talk about process, if I could. I want to go back to something the Premier said the last time we met in November, and that was that he was going to commit to a review of the process that allowed the Government of the Northwest Territories to sign a concession agreement committing it to a $160 million project three days prior to the Territorial election. As we know, during a transition period, when governments are in transition and there’s an election...

During our last session in November I asked a number of questions pertaining to the Deh Cho Bridge project and how it was that the Government of the Northwest Territories signed off on a concession agreement three days prior to the last Territorial election.

Mr. Speaker, just today, Members received a letter from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation in response to questions that have been asked about the project. I’d like to thank them very much for their letter and, once again, state for the record that I’m not opposed to a bridge being built across the Mackenzie River. I respect and admire the...

I'm just wondering if the Premier could comment on the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. I know they’ve had some struggles, and they’ve gotten to where they are today through a lot of hard work, but why has it taken so long for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation to come up with the $5 million in equity? The foundation of the project, and the benefits, were going to come out of that $5 million, and if it’s not there today, it’s not the same story we were told during the life of the last government.

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the Premier would be able to tell the Members of the House and the public here in the Northwest Territories: who are the partners in the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation today? Mahsi.