Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A project of this nature requires very strict scrutiny by all people involved. There is also the Canadian Bridge Code that has to be followed. We had people from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation that provided oversight and inspections. We had also independent engineers that provided oversight. We had our own people that were on the ground and providing checks and balances. We also, for the first year, had a team of people that worked together to review all issues and all documentation that were coming forward. We had a fairly strict oversight and inspection process on this project. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for the answer. I guess it begs the question, then, if we did have that kind of fairly large involvement in the project, if we were doing that kind of monitoring, it is no secret that this project has run into difficulties. We had problems with the contractor. We have had problems with the corporation and their management of the project. Why then did we have such great difficulties? Why are we in the situation we are in at this point? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, the Member has laid out a number of issues that we have been challenged with. The design was, of course, one issue that we had to wrestle with. We had a contractor that had to be replaced. We also had a developer that had fairly limited capacity. Those are issues that we tried, for the most part, over the last while, to improve with adding resources. We have changed budgets. We have added more people that we thought we could lend to this project. We also brought in different firms that would work with the different areas in terms of enhancing this project. We felt that we made some significant changes over the first year. The second year went fairly smoothly. We had one big issue, of course, with one of the piers. Pier three had a bad pour and had to be redone. Things seemed to be changing. I thought we were around the corner with putting a new plan in place, a new design, a new contractor. That is where we are at right now. Of course, given that we are going to add a year or two, that adds to the interest. It also requires us to make the payments on what the lenders are going to need for their first year’s payment on the debt. There are a number of things that are out there that are adding to the project and the cost of redesign is

something that was expected to lead into further significant savings. However, it did allow us to have some savings but not enough to cover what it costs to add a year to the construction terms. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for his response. I mentioned in my statement that I think that it is necessary at this point and I have to give credit to my colleague Mr. Bromley, because he was the one that first raised this in committee a while ago, but we need to have an audit to know how we got to this current situation that we are in, to determine what actual costs are, whether it is actually going to be $181 million or if all the hidden costs add up to several more million. I would like to ask the Minister if he will commit in this House to an audit of the project from its inception until to date. We need to know where we are at right now. Will he do that audit to determine how we got where we are? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, given the level of discussion in the House over the last while for the life of this project, I am not sure if the Member would be satisfied with us doing an audit on ourselves. That may be something that we need to talk further. The Auditor General has been involved and has looked at components of this project. I am assuming that the Member is talking about a full-blown audit of this project. I think that would have to come at the direction of this House or at least by the Finance Minister. It is not something I can commit to. But if the Member is satisfied, we certainly can, at the conclusion of this project, do a review of everything that has transpired, including all the numbers that have been out there in terms of budgets and actual spending. I can commit to that if that is what the Member is looking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess to clarify, I am looking for an operational audit and also a financial audit. I think, at this point, what I am looking for, and I think some other Members are as well, is to know how much we spent to date, how much we intend to spend to complete this project, because I think there are a lot of hidden costs which aren’t out there. I guess, at this point, I would say yes, I would like a full-blown operational and financial audit when the project is done, but within the near term I would like to see a compilation of all the costs that we have incurred to date. I wonder if the Minister can commit to that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we wouldn’t want any Member to assume we have hidden costs. We do have a tracking of all our expenditures. We could provide that information. We would have to see how far along it is in terms of presentation. We could also provide the breakout of

what is being planned for the dollars that we are going to be requesting through the supplementary appropriation. I have no problem to commit to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through all the investments that we are making, we had hoped to see some of the numbers coming down. We are assuming that the next one that we do, the numbers will definitely come down. I can advise the Member that the numbers on the survey that was just completed will go a long way in determining our infrastructure budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year. We have already dealt with the 2010-11, so the 2011-12 budget will be determined a lot by the community needs survey figures. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I understand there are some investments already in the Nahendeh -- I have six communities -- that may alleviate some of these numbers. I think the survey is completed every three or four years. Is there a way for the Housing Minister to do an interim assessment to track and see how our core needs is in the Nahendeh riding? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the needs survey is done every five years, but we have had a significant investment in the last three years. It runs out after next year, so we are looking at doing a kind of an interim survey at the time to see how much we have affected the survey numbers. I do believe that once we do this two-year cycle the numbers will be down quite a bit.

I certainly would like to see the Minister commit that there is a new survey or at least a mini survey for the Nahendeh riding that can be done this coming fiscal year. The numbers are true. We have huge overcrowding issues, we have lots of old houses that need retrofit and/or replacement.

We have significant investment in the Nahendeh riding for 2009-2010. Some of those projects are just being completed. There’s approximately $10 million being invested in the Nahendeh riding and then when we go to the 2010-2011 budget there’s an additional $5.2 million being invested into housing. That’s actually one of the lower investments across the Northwest Territories, but we’re believing that will go a long way towards addressing some of the Member’s concerns about adequate housing in Nahendeh. I think this will go a long way in determining and improving the condition and having more units on the ground in Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister for quoting me some of those millions of dollars of investments in the Nahendeh riding. I think the key thing is that I’m not too sure why the core needs numbers remain high. I think one of the things we’ll have to do in the interim this coming fiscal year is to do another survey for the Nahendeh number. I know that lots of units are indeed coming up, but I’d like to see progress in the Nahendeh riding and not the numbers going the other way.

There are a few things that are taken into account when they’re doing the community needs survey. There is the suitability and adequacy, and I think through the major M and I program we’re taking steps to address that. There’s a huge investment in M and I throughout the Northwest Territories, not just in the Nahendeh riding. There’s also the affordability. So these are all factors that are taken into consideration. After we’re done with this major investment that we’ve had for the last two or three years we should go back and do, as the Member’s said, a bit of a mini survey to see how it’s addressed the need in the communities. We’re quite confident the numbers will change.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation today and it is not about the bridge.

I’m not fond of flying. Something about flying through the air, being hurtled through the air at 500 miles an hour in a culvert with a cone on the front doesn’t really make sense to me. But I had occasion to hear a radio interview not so many months ago and something caught my attention

that kind of caused me some concern. I’ve been mulling it over. I think the young man that was being interviewed said that he had a problem with a crack-cocaine addiction and that he had been working as an aircraft maintenance engineer for a local aviation firm, and that he had decided on his own volition to quit his job doing that because he felt that it could be putting the travelling public at risk because he was high on crack while he was at work. It led me to wonder if the government, our government, if Transport Canada or some legislating body has responsibility for enforcing or dictating some kind of drug testing for people who are in those types of careers.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member paints a picture that would make anybody nervous, especially flying through the air at 500 miles an hour in a culvert with a cone on it. I’m not totally sure if there is any formal testing in the area of drugs. We are aware that the federal government, who has the responsibility in this area, does have rules related to alcohol and that there is medical testing that has to be done on a regular basis, but I think that’s only every so many years. I could point out, though, that most aircraft companies have built into their safety management systems drug testing, but I would have to follow up with the federal government to see if there’s any intention or if there’s any formal testing, for that matter.

It’s definitely not my intention to cast in any negative light any private carriers or small companies, but we do hear and have heard debate and controversy over the years about people, whether it was a violation of their rights to have mandatory drug testing in certain areas. You hear about in the oilpatch. I certainly know that large companies have their own in-house policies on drug testing and it’s particularly stringent, I believe, on anybody that’s involved in the transportation industry, and certainly for pilots, as the Minister says. I know there are medical tests and tests that are performed on pilots. It’s the folks that are in the maintenance shops that are working on the maintenance of aircraft that I’m concerned about. I suppose this could carry over to anybody that’s working on equipment that’s used for public transportation. I would like to ask the Minister if he could suggest if Transport Canada does not have such policies or rules, if it is within the mandate of this government to legislate or regulate industry in this regard.