David Ramsay

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Assuming that there’s no list, how do Regular Members have any input into the decisions on what priorities are on that list, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier. I wanted to ask the Premier, does the Government of the Northwest Territories have a list of priority projects for the Building Canada Fund? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m wondering if the Minister can let the Regular Members of this House know how the government plans to consult with Regular Members when it comes to making things a priority of this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, getting back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, during the last federal budget, an announcement was made of a $33 billion infrastructure program called the Building Canada Fund. I’d like to ask questions to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs about this fund. On Wednesday, I’d asked questions of the Minister of Transportation about whether a list existed from this government to the federal government in terms of what the priorities were. Here we are 48 hours later, less than 48 hours later and I’d like to ask the Minister of MACA, does...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m having trouble understanding what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate and who makes the decision not to send a committee of this Legislative Assembly’s press release out on our government service. Who ultimately makes that decision? Is it the deputy minister? Who makes the decision and who is going to censor, who is there that’s going to censor our press releases? Are they being censored? Judging by yesterday’s events, there was some censorship there and I take great offence to that censorship, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe any Minister or northern Premier can thwart the free speech and a privilege that we have here as Members of this House. I would like to ask the Premier if he could find out who made that decision and why it was made. If we are going to be censored and there is going to be a gatekeeper on press releases that committees make, we should know about that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last government had a history of avoidance and not including Regular Members in the decision-making process. I’d like to ask the Premier how is this government going to be different and how are they going to engage Regular Members in the decision-making process so that consensus government and the spirit and intent of consensus government is not continually eroded? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was quite a lengthy answer for a yes or no question. Again, I’d like to ask the Premier what…Okay, first I’m going to ask him again: Is there a list of priority projects for the Building Canada Fund? Yes or no.