Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I support this project and therefore this legislation that would allow the project to proceed, but I don't think I can support this motion because it does not address the concerns that the Members expressed. One is a concern expressed by the public as well, because the public understands that we are going to have a bridge that will be tolled. It is the first of its kind in the Territories and the public wants to be assured that there will be some kind of control over how much the level of toll will be.
The suggestion that the committee made was that there should be some section in there that says the toll should be fair and reasonable. While the definition and interpretation of what might constitute what is fair and reasonable for a toll, I do believe that that is a commonly used language in law and that over time there will be judicial decisions on that if asked, and any judicial interpretation will take into consideration the cost of operating and the reasonable profit for the corporation; cost of financing their mortgage and other types of things that would be seen to be reasonable and fair.
Also, the government will have the power to set out different sections in there that would speak to what is reasonable and fair. But the position of the government has been that that would be too restricting and they don't want to be subject to too much court challenge on that basis. Even when the committee Members suggested that we will more clearly define what might constitute reasonable and fair -- and that that includes three things -- we were very specific about that, but the Minister was not prepared to go with that and that is a concern to me because this motion as it reads basically says that it is really up to the government and the corporation as to how the tolls will be set. The only thing they have to do is to make sure that it is public and that it is in a Gazette or it is in newspapers, and I suppose letters will be sent out to various governments and MLAs that the tolls will go up. The notice has to be given 90 days prior. But if I were an MLA sitting in my office and I get this notice and the people hear about it through the papers and they say these rates are unreasonable, I am not going to be able to do anything about that, nor will the government need to do anything about that because the only obligation under this motion if passed and made into law is that they simply have to give a notice of it and if they meet the requirement for 90 days notice that is all they have to do.
So I would like to ask the Minister why it is not acceptable for the government to have a clause there that states that the tolls have to be not only advertised to let the public know as to what the level is, but that it should be fair and reasonable? Thank you.