Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the Minister to certainly have a drive with me on the Sahtu goat trail there and look at our bridges and see what type of repairs and work that needs to be done on them.

Mr. Speaker, again, if the department then would look at the P3 policy -- I know it’s somewhere within the House here, in the committee -- in terms of having that established. We’ve certainly got to look at some creative and innovative ways to start building some of these major bottlenecks into the Sahtu region or the Gwich’in or to the Deh Cho, Nahendeh, sorry, to...

If we stay on target and time frame, the completion of Deh Cho Bridge will be November 2011. I hope between now and 2011 the department can give some serious consideration to looking at the other bridges and thinking outside the box, as the Minister says, and being innovative and creative. How do we put together some bridges like the Peel, the Bear, and Liard bridges that need to be looked at? We still need to have a P3 concept proposal in front of us to approve it and go ahead with it. Certainly we have learned a lot there. I’m just asking the department if they would begin some initial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People in the Northwest Territories have been dreaming about building a bridge over the Mackenzie River for the last 50 years. A bridge will provide year-round, reliable access to the North Slave and eventually down the Mackenzie Valley. Toll fees will provide revenues.

Every week, all year round, Buffalo Airways flies loads of freight, fresh food and mail up to the communities in the Sahtu from the Yellowknife Airport. All of that will cross the new bridge, so I know the new bridge will be good for the Sahtu.

In a year and a half we have fulfilled the dream of having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay, for the motion. I will be supporting the motion. I want to say that in the history of this Deh Cho Bridge Project that the federal government wasn’t there due to other things that they had to deal with. We certainly want to involve them in this project here; however, they had their own reasons for not stepping forward and helping out with the start-up of this whole project here. They had dealt with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and the community of Fort Providence and they worked with them on some equity issued there, so in a sense they did come...

The other question I have is in regard to the issue around Minister Flaherty and the Minister of Finance in terms of a working relation arrangement. I think what I heard from the Premier, Mr. Chair, in terms of that coming close to some satisfaction, in terms of yes, this will not hinder us in terms of our fiscal forecast, forecasting projects that we have in the future, and that I’m leaning towards the Premier’s voice in terms of the evidence that the Minister is going to do something, the federal Minister. He said something like that. I just need to know if the Premier would, even if it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was thinking about this last night and I was thinking about whoever thought that a bridge connecting the southern part of the Northwest Territories would be such a troublesome headache and heartache for some people, and for other people, what were they thinking, you know? Those types of thoughts ran through my mind.

Mr. Chair, when the bridge was considered in 1958 it was targeted at $6.2 million, as commissioned by the federal government consultant to do and at that time it was too expensive, unheard of, can’t do it. So they waited until a little later, until 1975, and...

Does the Minister anticipate the ruling of the court will have an impact on future discussions involving aboriginal groups and treaty rights?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. I want to ask the Minister of Justice who Cabinet consulted with on the decision to refer the question of the Government of the Northwest Territories’ legal right to impose a ban on aboriginal people from hunting to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.

That’s what I was alluding to regarding the communication on this project. There are certain things you want to communicate to the public, certain things you want to communicate to specific organizations out there. There is also the communication process for Regular Members that members of the public aren’t privy to. You know, some of the briefings that we had are very helpful in terms of going forward with this project.

I’m happy to hear the Minister is going to put together a communication plan of various levels. It’s a very important asset that the GNWT will own and have on the books here...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister about other legal things that could be associated with the Deh Cho Bridge Project, some of the unresolved matters. For example, ATCON is in receivership and there may be claims outstanding that may be unresolved issues with the bridge. Is the GNWT likely to become involved in any legal actions related to the project? What matters might be unresolved that might cost the GNWT money? Thank you.