Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to say that I’m a little frustrated actually being here today. I’m a little frustrated that the first time that the Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly
get to vote on anything on the bridge, the vote is such that we really don’t have a choice. We pretty much have to vote yes to this thing. If we don’t vote yes to this thing it’s still going to cost us the same or more money. The delays will actually, in my
opinion, result in far greater expenditures than the incredibly high expenditures that we’re already dealing with today. It’s frustrating and it makes me a little angry.
I think this project has been managed poorly since day one. I think the 14th Assembly made a mistake
signing the Deh Cho Bridge Act. I’m not convinced that the Deh Cho Bridge Act is a good act. If anything I hope that this Assembly and future Assemblies learn from what we’re going through today and never ever sign anything like the Deh Cho Bridge Act into existence again. It was a mistake and it’s going to cost us dearly forever.
I’m frustrated and angry that in the 15th Assembly,
in the dying days of the Assembly, the Premier rushed this thing through and signed a concession agreement. It frustrates me to no end that we got stuck with this particular construction project without some reasonable and responsible decision-making beforehand.
I’m frustrated and I’m angry that the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, in my opinion, has mismanaged this file. They had the faith of this government at one point to take this forward and build a bridge in the Northwest Territories, one of the largest infrastructure projects in the history of the Northwest Territories and, quite frankly, I’m of the opinion that they blew it. I’m not convinced that the project management team had the skill to manage such a large infrastructure project, yet they were the ones that were in charge and we sat back and watched them move forward and fail miserably.
I’m frustrated that the information that we’ve asked for on a regular basis comes to us, the Minister seems confident with it and rightfully so, and then two weeks later he’s getting new information and as a result we’re getting new information. We weren’t getting consistent information from the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. So I’m frustrated there as well.
And here we are today, faced with this supp that if we don’t approve it, it’s going to cost us more money in the long run. If we turn back and say to heck with the bridge, no bridge, we still have to rip those piers out of the water, put it back to the state it was in, and then there are penalties we’re going to have to pay and all sorts of things we’re going to have to pay. It’s probably going cost us more to rip that bloody thing out of the water than it is to actually go forward and finish the construction of this thing.
So here we are. We have no choice. In my opinion we have to support this supp. From what I’ve read and understand, it’s not really today if things go smoothly – and, God, let’s hope that they do -- if things go smoothly, it’s not really going to cost us any more tomorrow other than the $15 million than we had planned originally. It’s going to cost us our ferry operations, it’s going to cost us the $2 million a year, which we knew about all along, and it’s
going to cost us some operation money, which we knew about all along. I don’t see anything changing, other than the fact that now the money has to flow through us.
I think Cabinet, the Premier, the Minister, have a responsibility here to make sure that the people of the Northwest Territories understand what is happening with respect to this supp and how it’s going to impact us. Some questions have been asked earlier today and I’m glad they were asked and I’m glad they were answered. I’m not sure the answers were as clear as the people of the Northwest Territories deserve and I would like to seek some additional clarity as we move forward. I will be trying to ask the questions in a certain way that we can hopefully get some answers later on today when we get into the detail.
But to begin with, I’ve had some people talk to me about their frustration with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, and clearly, as you can tell, I’m frustrated with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation. Are they going to be getting any profits out of this as we move forward? I mean, we’ve now taken over this, we’ve now taken on the debt, it’s our project, it’s our bridge. There are a lot of people who have told me that they don’t want the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, which so brutally managed this thing to begin with, to, you know, get a significant amount of profits. I understand that they do have some equity and that there should be a little return on equity, but we should be careful how much equity or how much profit they get out of this project, because it will be offensive to a lot of people who watched this project struggle and struggle and struggle.
I want the Premier to help the people understand the real impact this could have on our borrowing limit, and there has been some suggestions or some answers to that today, but I’d like it to be broken down into as simple a language as we can so that the people really understand what this could do to our borrowing limit today, tomorrow, five years from now.
One of the most important things to me is I’m not convinced that the project management team of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation had the skill, like I’ve said already, to manage a project of this magnitude. I want to know, and I want the Premier and the Minister to make it clear to the people of the Northwest Territories, the qualifications of our new project management team. I don’t 100 percent agree with my colleague Mr. Ramsay. I think this bridge can come in on time, and I think it can come in on the budget allocated, assuming that our project management team has the capacity, the knowledge, skills and ability to handle a megaproject of this size. I want you to tell me about our new project management team, and I want you to tell me how they meet those knowledge, skills,
abilities and qualifications to manage a project of this size. And if they do, if they are the experts that I hope they are, I believe that we can come in on budget and I believe that we can get this project done on time, because if we don’t, the ramifications are significant, as Mr. Ramsay pointed out. If we’re late, it’s a million dollars a year, $8 million a year on top of what we’re spending already. That’s very risky, and you guys don’t have a lot of time to get this done and get this done right.
I talked a little bit about the timeline. I want to know, you know, is the timeline your timeline, is the timeline the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation’s timeline, or is the timeline a new project management timeline, this new group, the Associated Engineering Group who is going to be project managing this. Is that time realistic to those experts? And if it isn’t, we need to know, and we need to know right now, because it might affect our vote on this particular supp.
I also want to know about cost control. I believe experts can probably manage the cost, but I want you to talk a little bit to us -- and I’ll be asking questions when we get into the detail -- about some of the cost control measures that are in place. How are we going to ensure that the build is managed and controlled and that the costs are managed and controlled better than they were in the past when the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation was running it, where, in my opinion, they weren’t managed all that well, otherwise we wouldn’t have had to come up with a $15 million supp on a project that had a fixed cost to begin with.
There are a lot of problems here. I’m frustrated. I’m angry that I have to vote on a supp where there’s really no choice but to support the darn thing, otherwise costs are going to flare up even higher. When we get into the detail I’m going to ask some questions, and I’d like some plain English answers for the people in the Northwest Territories who, in my opinion, deserve clear, concise answers on this bridge. Thank you.