Michael Miltenberger

The two basic areas are going to be to prove up the gravel sources from probable to proven, and the other big piece is to conclude the geotechnical work that needs to be done so that we can move the design from the 85 percent complete to the 100 percent complete in time for construction this coming fall.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $65 million that is currently before this Assembly – the $5 million that was just approved and the $60 million now before the House – will prove up the gravel, we’ll do the geotechnical work, conclude that, and finalize a design before we go to tender and actually get the work done this fall.

Madam Chair, it will be a line item. It will be amortized over the life of the project. That’s how it will be delineated in the budget documents. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If we look collectively as Northerners at the Northwest Territories, if regions prosper then we all prosper. If things go well in the Beaufort-Delta then we all benefit, if we can put in hydro transmission links that promote development. As former Minister Duncan said when we were in Ottawa, there are about 25 projects on the go, about $21 billion worth of activity, but a lot of it’s predicated on access to reasonably priced power. If we put transmission lines in and we and promote that kind of sustainable economic development, then the money goes into our coffers in...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This project has a long history and some of the initial numbers were very basic estimates. Over time we’ve used two separate consultants as well as the expertise within the Department of Transportation to refine the estimate to the point where it is today. Part of the upfront sunk costs that we talked about, the millions that we put into it, was to do that so that we could make the most informed decision possible. So we’ve had two consulting firms and the Department of Transportation separately looking at this to help us refine the numbers.

I believe in the risk matrix there is political risk that has been identified. Putting this into plain language, I don’t know if it’s necessarily a political risk. The Members asked for a plain language summary. We’ve provided it to them, and we’ve indicated, as well the Minister committed that we would table this in the House tomorrow.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; Mr. Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation; Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary of the FMB. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member sharing her point of view and her assessment of the circumstances related to this particular project. We are elected in this Assembly to make choices when we are presented with information and it’s time to move on a project like this. That is our challenge here today, and I appreciate that it’s caused some angst with some of the Members.

At the end of the day I want to as well assure the Member that my intention was not to offend her. I was making an observation, and if I have offended her, I apologize. That was not my intent. Having said that, I...

Thank you. Madam Chair. We’ve had, over the years, federal investments through the Build Canada funding, if that’s what the Member is referring to, where we’ve taken full advantage of the cost-shared dollars. As a very specific example, there are no really large projects that come to mind, but with all the projects, we literally put… No, actually, over three years we’ve put a billion dollars of infrastructure in the last government on the ground, combined with our dollars and the federal dollars taking full advantage of all those dollars as we were fighting off the impacts of the huge economic...

Thank you. We should be clear that this risk matrix is an evolving living document that, as we conclude all the work and do all the geotechnical, it will be amended. There was work being done on the plain language summary. The government, the department was not deaf to the entreaties of the Member, so we now have it before us in addition to the document that was given in December.

The way we do business for the most part in this Assembly, that I recollect, with committee is we share during the budget process and planning process all sorts of information because we’re a consensus government. We...