Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not sure if that’s something we want to start reading off. Do we have that with us? We have the background information. We have looked at their experience, their references and the different individuals that are involved in the project, including the ones, the engineering and the staff that will be working directly for this project, and are quite comfortable that they have the qualifications. We have a package for almost all the companies that are working for us or are signed on as part of this project. We can provide that to the Members.

Mr. Chairman, the project is indeed self-liquidating to a certain extent. Fifty percent of the annual costs will be paid through tolls. There is a portion that we are already paying in terms of operating the ice bridge and the ferry, which we believe now is in excess of $3 million that can be put towards the project and of course there’s a contribution that was committed to by this government. So there is probably three-quarters of the project being financed through existing payments or existing costs and new revenues. Thank you.

The act requires us to keep a detailed accounting of all the revenues that arise from this project and all the expenditures, so that’s something we will be obligated to follow. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, most of the information regarding the deficiencies are all relatively minor. We certainly can assure the Members that we’ll do a complete assessment. That is being done right now as we speak with the new companies that we have involved. They certainly are not going to go out and accept a project that has deficiencies that are serious in nature. We’ve also talked to the companies that have been on the project as a result of some concerns that have been brought forward in the last couple of days. They have reassured us that all repairs that needed to be done were completed and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s a hypothetical question, but at this point we would expect that we would treat it as if it was a cost overrun and it would be recovered and recouped as traffic volumes went up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In response to the comments, some of them being very serious allegations that there has been discrepancies that are not being dealt with, I certainly, as the Premier indicated, would appreciate if that information would be brought to my attention. I would believe that some of the pictures that he’s looking at, some of it we have in our own possession. There is no doubt some deficiencies that we are dealing with, some have been dealt with and some are scheduled to be resolved over the next little while and a scour rock is a deficiency that’s been noted, it hasn’t been paid...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that opportunity. There certainly have been challenges with this project right from the get-go. There have been issues with contractors, challenges with the design that didn’t meet the code. The challenges have been ongoing and I’m not sure if this is what we expected in terms of scenarios. It’s certainly not the one we wanted to be in. However, having said that, we have right now a $15 million cost overrun that we have to accommodate and repay. Now we have to take on this onto our borrowing that will potentially have an impact on our borrowing limit.

I’m quite...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The expectation will be that there is going to be a requirement for payment on the debt, which is interest plus principal and there’s also going to be O and M costs and that will roughly be around $8 million indexed on an annual basis. The equity payment to the Bridge Corporation is not something we have resolved yet, so we can’t give a firm number and the reason we don’t have up to date, today’s traffic volumes, is because we don’t have the 2010 information yet and that hasn’t been compiled. So it will be quite difficult to provide the information that the Member is...

I suppose it’s possible to go through that exercise. Right now our calculations are based on the base amount of commercial traffic that comes through regardless of what the industry is requiring, especially the mines, which is fairly stable. We recognize that it’s probably down this year. We also measure the mine traffic which, again, fluctuates on a year-to-year basis, and we understand that number is down this year too.

Mr. Speaker, at the same time to try to incorporate a project that has not yet been brought forward for final approval or recognition is difficult. We also are in a difficult...

As we have now moved towards assuming the debt and we are taking over the project, we also now will be responsible for communications and we’ve already made several commitments in this House regarding development of a website. That website is up and running and is being viewed internally as we work out the bugs and ensure that it’s of the standard that we expect. We will be making that information or that site available to the public. We are also intending to provide a newsletter type of information to the residents of the Northwest Territories on a scheduled basis. We want to continue what we...