Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. This has been a very, very long time coming. We are four years now, well, not quite four years, but we’re three and a half years anyway from when the commitment was made. This was supposed to be completed in 2013. We’re now in 2015.

I’d like to know from the Minister why has it taken so long for this to get started, because I gather it hasn’t even yet started.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Transportation. About a year ago I asked the Minister of Transportation some questions and they were based on a commitment from the previous Minister of Transportation, a commitment he made in December of 2011, and I need to ask those questions again. The questions are around the review or analysis or a comprehensive review of the Deh Cho Bridge.

My first question to the Minister is: What is the status of the review, the analysis, the comprehensive investigation of the bridge project?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my last question, but I have to comment that if we think that remediating the environmental liabilities sites is important, then I would urge the department to request funding to make sure it gets done.

Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little strange that the department is required to do work and doesn’t have any funding for it. Is this something that is minimal to no cost, or you’re overfunded and we don’t need to give you money for liability assessments? It just seems strange to me that if there’s work that the department has to do that there’s not an amount earmarked in the budget. Can I get a guesstimate of how much might be spent on environmental assessments in any one year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note the last line of the text on page 354 says that this section is also responsible for coordinating MACA’s responsibilities for environmental liabilities. I thought that those environmental liabilities came either under Lands or under ENR, so could I get an explanation of what MACA’s responsibilities are under for, or under environmental liabilities?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question on this page in regard to the number. It looks as though the revenue, for instance, in 2015-16 is $187,000, but then there’s a line underneath that total, and I need an explanation. The total for 2014-15 revised is $187,000 and then beneath that it has $2.561 million, and I don’t know quite where that other number comes from, so if I could get some explanation, please.

Thanks to the Minister. I have no further questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of comments and questions here. I appreciate the need for this bill to come before us, but it is somewhat concerning for me. We have encountered a number of expenditures which have been unforeseen. The fire season expenditure is the biggest one and the one that we were most unable to control. The $20 million for the low water surcharge, that was a conscious decision to undertake that payment, which put us into this situation, partly put us into this situation. The other one that was a conscious decision was accelerating the payments of the Inuvik...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a little hard to be short when the Minister is questioning the value of this analysis. This was a P3 project which went from a P3 project to not a P3 project which was fraught with problems and cost us all kinds of money.

To the Minister: It’s not the value of the bridge itself, it’s looking at the process and the process that broke down and determining why it broke down and what we can do to make it better. Why will he not consider that instead of the value of the bridge? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for his comments. It was on February 13, 2014, when I asked the Minister whether or not the work on the bridge was completed, and his answer: “There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge.” I’m a little surprised to hear that now there are deficiencies and we can’t start this analysis, this investigation, one that was supposed to be completed almost two years ago now.

To the Minister: He says now we have deficiencies and maybe then we’re going to start this retrospective analysis. When can we expect results from this analysis?