Jane Groenewegen

I withdraw the remarks. I do apologize. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier did not identify who is signing these documents on behalf of the G.N.W.T., and he doesn’t seem too familiar with what they are, anyway.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, in case I don’t get a chance to ask any more questions, I want to let the record show that today, February 21, 2008, I sat in this Chamber and said that this process has not done justice to due diligence and to the people of the Northwest Territories. It has put them at undue risk.

My question for the Premier here today is: will he endeavour to find out…? We’re going to leave here now, but I want to know...

Mr. Speaker, now that we have established that, in fact, the G.N.W.T. is bearing some of the risks — if something goes wrong, all of the risk — for this project, I’d like to ask the Premier — and he’s the Finance Minister, so he should know this — how is this liability being reflected in the records of the G.N.W.T.? Because as everyone knows, we have a legislated debt limit of $500 million.

This is the last day of the sitting of this particular Legislature, and true to form, I want to talk about the Deh Cho Bridge.

Mr. Speaker, I want to summarize once again for people what has been provided to us in terms of information and responses to our very good and valid questions. We don’t ask these questions for fun; we ask these questions because we are the conduit for the public to become aware of the government. If we’re not going to have this debate on the floor of the House, well then, to me, really, you might just have appointed an administrator to take over running the Northwest...

Mr. Speaker, the Premier is not telling the entire story, and he is misleading the House.

Interjection.

Well, Mr. Speaker, I'd be interested in knowing who approved the loan guarantees, because let’s be very clear: I was never part of a decision to approve a loan guarantee.

Under the Financial Administration Act, when a loan guarantee is put in place or is increased, there is an obligation to notify Members, but I don't ever recall voting on the increase to the loan guarantee. So somebody must have been acting on our behalf in the interests of the government and in the public interest to have approved those. I'd like to know who that was. Thank you.

I was previously directing my questions to the Premier on the Deh Cho Bridge. Maybe I should be directing them to the Minister of Transportation.

My questions are with respect to the $9 million loan guarantee we put in place. Were we privy to what the $9 million to date was actually spent on? Did we have a role to play in approving what that initial $9 million to date was spent on?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I just want to be clear. Is there something yet for our government to sign off with respect to these schedules, which are the appendices to the concession agreement? Do we still have requirements to officially sign something off? If that is the case, who would be signing those off on behalf of our government?

Mr. Speaker, I'd be most interested in knowing when that might happen, because as the Premier knows, we will all be leaving here shortly.

Speaking of leaving here, Friday is February 22. The 22nd was the day by which the legal counsel for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was supposed to have “dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s,” as has been referred to a number of times. I'd like to know if the Premier has had any kind of update on the status of that review that's been ongoing. If he wouldn't mind throwing in when we can get that other piece at the same time, that would be great.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank Mr. Krutko for bringing up Motion 5. I know this has been a concern of the diesel communities for some time now. The rates for power in their communities are structured on a community-by-community basis. I also empathize with the cumbersome process when there is a general re-application and the extreme amount of study and work that it takes just to keep the community-by-community–based rates current.

Hay River is not a community that is serviced by diesel anymore so, as Members of this House who are from communities that are on hydro, we’re being called upon to...