Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Taking buildings apart or demobilizing facilities that are of no more value to our government or communities is something that we do on a regular basis. We have fairly rigid guidelines of how to dispose of material. There are safety issues that we have to, of course, follow and contaminated material, as the Member has mentioned, has to go to, in a lot of cases, places that are designated for such use.

Thank you. What the Member is speaking about doesn’t only challenge the communities, it challenges our government when there is a huge injection of capital into our jurisdiction with a very short time frame to spend it. It really challenges us. I’ve conveyed it, the Minister of MACA has conveyed those concerns to the federal government, that we need a stable long-term agreement that would flow capital dollars so we can have everybody take part and have a piece of the dollars invested in their areas and in the areas that they want to see invested. The Minister of MACA has informed me that they...

Mr. Speaker, once again the Member is correct. There are a number of communities that were in a deficit situation historically for long periods of time. Given our previous method of allocating dollars, I am assuming that this is changing. I get the sense from my discussions, at least, that communities are better prepared as a result of the New Deal funding and their larger formula funding dollars that are being invested in the communities. However, that is going to take time. In this case, not everybody was ready to put a project forward.

Although we have probably the biggest capital budget in...

Mr. Speaker, I think all the players involved feel they have a recourse in terms of legal challenges. We are no different. I am assuming that we will see the fallout as the dust settles on this project. At this point, we are focussed on trying to get the bridge completed. We are really in a compressed time frame to get that done. We are, as I have stated, negotiating right now with a number of the players, the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, the lenders and also a company that we hope is not going to be influenced by our discussion here today, but we are very close to concluding those discussions...

Mr. Speaker, as a result of a number of discussions for the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, we felt that we needed to bring in a new team to provide project management on this job. We have since agreed and notified the people that were on the project management team that we will be bringing in a new company and new players to fill those roles. That has been accepted. We are now in the process of having discussions, how to do the transition and continue to make sure that we have a smooth transition as we move forward. Thank you.

I share the Member’s sentiments on this issue. We, of course, have an obligation to stay within our budget that we have set for demolition. We have safety issues and contamination disposal regulations that we have to follow. But we’re able to meet all those requirements and I’ll be happy to ensure our staff has the discussion with the Member and the leadership in Fort Simpson as to the best way to move forward on this project.

In a lot of instances there is some discussion with the communities as to how the contractor awarded with the contract would dispose of it. We would make the necessary arrangements. In the case of Deh Cho Hall I’m not sure as to the specifics regarding how that is going to be handled. I would have to confirm that. But I certainly would agree that dismantling the Deh Cho Hall would provide a lot of lumber for a lot of cabins around Fort Simpson and the surrounding communities. I will commit to the Member to provide that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to say a few words on the point of privilege. Mr. Speaker, while we have an obligation to provide Members with details, with explanations, with discussion of accountability, we also have an expectation for the Members of this House to act reasonably. Mr. Speaker, the Member has disclosed information that was provided to committee in confidence and I would submit that disclosing this confidential information constitutes a breach of privilege. I would also submit that this disclosure is a violation of the principles of consensus government that we use in this...

Thank you. I’ll have to commit for the Minister of MACA, but there is I think roughly around 47 projects right across the Northwest Territories with the Building Canada funding and the stimulus funding and he’s listening so he should know, but we’ll commit, he’ll commit or I’ll commit for him, to providing that information to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; a lot of communities have felt that they are really challenged to have input in some of the stimulus money that came in very short order to this government. The program was quite compressed from a seven-year period. With very limited notice, we were required to put in two years’ worth of projects.

The Member has also referenced a Community Capacity Fund that was provided to the communities on a formula basis. It works quite well. That was the first area that we wanted to discuss with the federal government. The Minister of MACA did bring that...