Yes, Mr.

Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The

honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to

pick up on some of the questions my colleague had -- Mr. Bromley -- on the Deh Cho Bridge. Mr. Speaker, on repeated occasions, Members of this House and the public have been assured by the Minister of this and the previous government that the contract for the construction of the Deh Cho Bridge was awarded based on a fixed maximum price of $165 million. For example, as recently as February 26th of this year, the Premier stated in this

House, and I quote from page 2644 of Hansard: “Still, we have a guaranteed maximum price, so unless things really go wrong, that’s within the realms of that. We have to remember, we are still the guarantor of this project so we do have the ultimate liability at the end.” Mr. Speaker, there are many rumours circulating out there about project delays and cost overruns on the Deh Cho Bridge project. Will the Minister of Transportation, today, set the record straight: Is the contract for the construction of the Deh Cho Bridge based on a maximum guaranteed fixed price, and if so, why are we already accessing a prefunded contingency? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The

honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, yes, the

contract is for the amount that the Member has indicated. It is for a price that has been signed off that includes some money towards providing and dealing with claims and, as with any large project of this size and of this nature, there is to be expected a number of claims. So far, we have received, or the project has received claims. As I indicated to the Member that raised questions about the bridge earlier, roughly $36 million has been spent to date. Of that, there is roughly a little over $3 million that has come out of the contingency fund. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if the guaranteed

fixed price for the Deh Cho Bridge was to exceed, I guess that is a hypothetical question, but if it is to exceed $165 million, who would ultimately be responsible for paying those additional costs? Thank you.

It is a hypothetical

question; however, it is probably a question that many people are asking. The responsibility would fall on the project to find a mechanism to recover these costs and pay for them. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister

have any reason to believe that the Deh Cho Bridge project is not on time, not on budget and has a firm design in place? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the

Member knows the schedule had already last year slipped somewhat and is a little bit behind. We are hoping to pick up the differences here. We are working on the sign-off on the design. We expect the targeted $165 million to be in place at the end of the project. We are working towards that goal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The

previous government signed the concession agreement on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories on a Friday afternoon before the last election. The concession agreement commits this Legislature to approximately $4 million in annual contributions to the Deh Cho Bridge over 35 years. The commitment was made with no public debate on the floor of this House. Will this government commit in public and on the record that it will not do business in a similar fashion? Will this government and the Minister commit that if there is any change in the future financial obligations of the Government of the Northwest Territories directly or indirectly to this project, that it will bring these changes to the attention of the Members of this House and to the public before any firm commitments are made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I believe

the Member has asked this question to a number of Ministers over the last while, including the Premier, and that commitment has been made. We will certainly honour that. At least I will as the Minister of Transportation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The

honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My

questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I would like to speak briefly about Avalon Ventures project which is moving towards a prefeasibility study. In fact, I think their first meeting is today. Mr. Speaker, it is going to be necessary early on in the process to decide which road they go down; local value-added with their rare earths or actually deciding to ship the concentrate elsewhere for development and further processing. Mr.

Speaker, there are only facilities for this in China. There are none in North America at the present time that are operating. This is a real opportunity. What is our government doing to investigate this opportunity and to determine the key factors and let the developer know of our interest at the beginning of their feasibility study when we can actually have a chance to nail down some of this value-added activity? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The

honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our government has met with the principles of Avalon Resources on several occasions. We are in regular contact with them. We invited them here to appear in the House, and certainly we have discussed with them what the opportunities, are and what their interests are and what they are looking toward. Certainly we are advocating value-added for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those

remarks. Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear the Minister talk about his understanding of this opportunity in terms of the absence of value-added work in the area of rare earth minerals worldwide, with the exception of China, and the opportunity that we have, the understanding that we have that this is a real opportunity and that we recognize it and that is a unique opportunity. Exactly what are we doing to ensure that we take advantage of that? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, when the

committees were updated by Avalon on what their project entailed, they indicated that these rare earth minerals, when in production, would be in production for a lifespan of about 100 years. They indicated, as well, that value-added could be done in a number of locations, that they were looking at the requirement for power sources and also for some access to road systems and that depending on what was put forward by various communities, they could see themselves as doing value-added and processing here in the Northwest Territories and in a number of different locations. I guess they would determine that on the basis of what would benefit their company the best. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thank you again for

that response. Does the Minister see a match between, for example, Taltson hydro development project and the requirements for this development, and has that been pointed out to this company and other opportunities like that that can help in the early consideration and hopefully influence their decisions to actually do the local value-added route rather than exporting outside? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Avalon

Resources have indicated that the power source would greatly facilitate their development as well, as I said earlier, some sort of a road system would facilitate as well. We have yet to determine whether the proposed transmission lines would be able to go close enough to the Thor Lake project to be able to provide their power sources. But certainly if it is the case, we would certainly be encouraging that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a

final question. Are we participating in the feasibility review at all, both just by staying in touch and being aware, for example, of where they are headed? Are we enough in touch to be closely informed about opportunities for influencing that decision? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes we stay in

close contact with Avalon Resources. They do have a representative here in Yellowknife. We take advantage of that opportunity on every occasion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.