Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to join in on voicing my concern over how the government is handling the Taltson Hydroelectric Expansion Project. Mr. Speaker, this government is currently in the middle of dealing with the $181 million Deh Cho Bridge saga. I would like to think that somewhere along the line Cabinet has learned some valuable lessons when it comes to letting others do our bidding for us we end up holding the bag.

Mr. Speaker, it is little doubt that our participation in the bridge project was ill conceived and it will go down in history as being one of the biggest government blunders of all time.

Mr. Speaker, that leads me back to the Taltson Hydroelectric Expansion Project. I have always supported the expansion of the Taltson River Hydro

Project since becoming a Member of this Assembly in 2003 and today I still support the expansion. What I want to take issue with today is our government’s involvement in the expansion project and the lack of any clear progress being made on routing and power purchase agreements with the existing mines in the Slave Geological Province.

I agree with what some of my colleagues are saying about the routing. Whose interest are we serving when the proposed route goes directly to the diamond mines? Only the shareholders. It will not be in the public’s best interest to pursue this route. My belief is the routing should be or should try to achieve a social component. It should take a route most beneficial to our residents, not just to the shareholders. As a government, we cannot continue to overlook the future infrastructure needs of our residents.

Mr. Speaker, decisions were made in haste on the Deh Cho Bridge. We had a government that committed to a $165 million deal just days before the last election. My fear is, Mr. Speaker, that we have not learned from this mistake.

Like I said yesterday, if we are going to do something, we have to make sure that we are going to do it right. I believe we need to take a look at all of our options in the routing. I am left wondering why all of the focus of Deze and the Hydro Corporation seems to be on the existing mines. Should they not be doing everything in their power to accommodate potential other mineral projects like Avalon’s Nechalacho project that has the potential of being in place for well over 100 years? We have to base decision-making on concrete cost-risk-benefit analysis.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.