Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, I’d have to clarify. The schedules the Members are talking about as part of the concession agreement are one process. The instruments — I guess that is the proper term — of the lending agency to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation that we are involved with and that the Department of Transportation is involved with are the things that I talked about: the banks needing to proceed with this project and having a timeline of the 22nd. That’s the piece that I’m referring to. That is all part of the due process that is already in place. That’s about to happen. We’re waiting on the lawyers’...

Mr. Speaker, the process of loan guarantees is done through the Financial Management Board, notification to Members. If there's an actual expenditure that occurs as a result of that, that would fall to the supplementary appropriation that comes to this House. I'd have to go back to look, because at one point the interest had to be paid out as part of the process. So I’m not sure if that came to the House or not, but I recall some debate on it. Thank you.

In the area of the guarantee itself, the guarantee is something that’s been in the process, has been updated a number of times, through the work of this government in the sense of the relationship with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. They’ve been working with the bank.

That guarantee doesn't kick in unless the bank itself calls that loan. For us to have a direct involvement in what they’ve spent on, what areas they’ve done, that would be limited. I don't have that information. But we do stand behind that guarantee until it gets called. Thank you.

I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Thebacha, that Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009, be read for the third time.

Mr. Speaker, the process is laid out that followed through from the concession agreement, the guarantee that's in place, working with the banks and their lawyers, that they’ve had a secondary review on this.

The signing is to proceed with their final work on it. If the lenders are happy with what’s been committed, then it would be proceeded with.

The Department of Transportation representatives would have to be on a number of the file schedules — or files, I guess, is the term — and there may be a few for which we're trying to get that information that would fall under the finance side or the...

Mr. Speaker, the fact that the Government of the Northwest Territories would backstop this project has been known from the early days of the fact that the act was being discussed. That is why an act was put in place, because under existing processes, it would be very difficult to deal with a project of this nature. The fact that we're trying to get P3 money from the federal government, to try to help this project along….

We realize, and I would be negligent in my duty if, looking at the numbers, standing up and giving the message to the people of the Territories, “We're going to have to live...

Mr. Speaker, if that could work. As the Member said, Friday. No. In fact, I've been having the department try to pull all this stuff together.

There are a number of factors that come in there that are hard to quantify, and that's been some of the difficulty. For example, if we as an Assembly were to decide to shut this down, what kind of domino effect could happen? That's been the problem area of trying to put this together.

I instructed them this morning, as well as through the Executive, to review what we know is on the ground and what our position is, and then just highlight what the other...

Mr. Speaker, the facts have been out on the table for, I would say — at least the latest increases — close to a year.

During the last government, when the project that we've heard so much about…. When the act was put in place and talked about a $55 million to $70 million project, it is now identified, and was identified in the 15th Assembly, as $165 million.

The government’s fiscal piece of that is the money from the ferries and ice crossing. In fact, the additional money required was made public — the $2.28 million — before any agreements were signed. Those fundamental pieces are there, have...

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that right now there is a Minister who has that responsibility and does report back to cabinet as a whole. We do have a ministerial level — that level of contact — working with the organizations.

If the Member’s asking about changing it, that’s something that in we do our planning around how we work in government. That’s something that can be taken into consideration.

Definitely, after going through this process, I think the Government of the Northwest Territories…. If we’re going to venture out beyond the typical tender or a fee process we normally go through, we will have to come up with a specific policy for dealing with projects of this nature.

For example, I’ve talked about the Mackenzie Valley Highway. There’s hydro potential in the North. None of those would be able to be done within our existing confines. Realizing what we’ve had to deal with through this process, I would absolutely agree. We need to develop an absolutely clear process so everybody...