Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Chairman, I move that $540,000 be deleted from the Interim Appropriation Detail booklet amount set out in schedule 2, Capital Investment Expenditures, item No. 5, Justice, on page 6, for the project North Slave Adult Facility Perimeter Security in North Slave, Young Offenders Perimeter Security Service Entrance.

So in fact, we are co-signing the loan with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and indemnifying the corporation with the lenders, which is kind of a fancy way, a different way, of saying that in fact our government is backstopping. We are the guarantors of the loan should something go wrong.

If that is the case, then, we are way out on a limb on this project. I need the people to understand. I need the public to understand where we’re at on that.

So will the Premier please confirm that when he says we are there as a government to indemnify the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation if the loan is defaulted on...

Mr. Chair, is this perimeter fencing to keep the people in or to keep the people out? Is it to keep the public out or to keep the inmates in? The correctional centre has been operating for quite a while now, and I’d like to suggest we should probably have a better system in place than a chain-link fence.

They had no business proceeding without federal support, even though they said that if federal support wasn’t forthcoming, the project wouldn’t continue. They had no business committing future governments to additional investments of $2 million a year. They had no business exposing our government to financial harm by agreeing to absorb eligible cost overruns as long as they pertain to things that are unforeseen.

They certainly had no business assuming what was most important to Northerners in light of their knowledge of upcoming financial circumstances that resulted in this same government...

Mr. Chairman, I have a point of order. Is Mr. Miltenberger speaking to this as a Minister of the cabinet, or he is speaking to this as the MLA for Thebacha?

I know there’s a motion on the floor, but I’ve got to tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Minister in this House speak to a capital project in his or her riding in this kind of a forum. I understand why Ms. Lee answered the question; she’s the Minister of Health. I understand why the Premier spoke to it; he brought forward the bill. I am not understanding in what capacity Mr. Miltenberger is speaking to this. Not that I’m trying...

Mr. Chairman, we would like to consider Bill 1, Interim Appropriation Act, 2008-2009.

Mr. Speaker, two motions were passed in the 15th Assembly. I believe they were unanimously passed by the Regular Members of this House.

The Premier had to have known that there were concerns on this side of the House with the Deh Cho Bridge project. It has been widely publicized that there were questions and concerns.

The fact that he'd had a chance to think, for I don't know how many months, he might be the Premier, and with headlines written for months in advance that he was going to be the Premier, I can't help it if he didn't assign that cabinet portfolio. But that was his choice.

Let’s go on...

I’d like to ask the Minister: is he quite satisfied that the signage leading up to the bridge is adequate to communicate to people that they need to slow down? Has he seen the signage? Is it bright enough? Does it start back far enough? Is it sufficient?

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation: what’s wrong with the bridge? Should we be worried even driving across it at five kilometres per hour? What is exactly wrong with the bridge that requires people to slow down to five kilometres per hour?

I’m just waiting for you to finish your consultation there.

What’s wrong with the bridge? Why do we have to slow down to five kilometres? Should we be worried about driving on it at even five kilometres per hour? What kind of assurance can the Minister offer to the public? What’s wrong with the bridge?

Mr. Speaker, I know, at least for myself, I want to make sure that we use government resources to impact our residents in the most positive way possible. Our public service is a huge piece out there.

I would love to hear the Premier today tell us and confirm with us that layoffs of employees in the public service will be a last resort in terms of reducing the expenditures of this government.