Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Probably all of the points that I’m about to mention have been expressed already, but I feel that I need to get on the record where I’m coming from with regard to this project. I expressed in my general comments that I have some concerns. I want to say at the outset I am supportive of this project. I think it is a project that is going to be, as has been mentioned, nation building, territory building, it is a good project. I have huge problems with the process and I have huge problems with the lack of concrete information that we have at our disposal in order to approve this expenditure and to basically the cost of the project as we go forward.

At the outset, Mrs. Groenewegen says that there are some people that feel this whole road is a federal responsibility. I’m one of them. I believe that it is the federal government’s responsibility to build new roads and it is then the territorial and provincial responsibility to maintain that road. I haven’t seen in my time here anything, I don’t think, if so, very little if anything, from the federal government that will support new road building in our territory. I really believe that it is the federal responsibility to do that.

In regard to the whole project, I am really, really nervous that we have no project costs. We are being asked to approve a specific amount of money here. We’re going to be asked to approve another $2.5 million, so we’re told, in next year’s capital budget. We’ve already approved that budget but we’ve been advised that they’re going to come back and ask for another $2.5 million to finish this geotechnical work in 2012-2013. So we’re already at $6 million by the time we get to the supp for 2012-2013. We’re already at $6 million for this project, but we don’t know what the end cost is. That really concerns me. Do we have any idea, any

finite idea of the cost of the project? I don’t think so. I’ve heard the feds are going to give us $150 million. Initially we thought it was going to be $225 million then it went up to maybe $230 million, well then $260 million, maybe $283 million, and now I’m hearing a number of $300 million. If that’s the case and if the federal government says, well, we’re only going to give you $150 million, this government, this territory, our residents are now looking at paying $150 million for the Tuk-Inuvik Highway. Where’s the 75/25 split in that? My math doesn’t work that way. If that’s the case and the feds pull out at $150 million and the project costs us $300 million, that’s 50/50. I can’t get any guarantee; I can’t get any assurance from either Minister that tells me that we’re going to be able to have a 75/25 split. The fact that we don’t know the cost of the project is really disturbing to me.

The other thing in terms of the project in general is that we don’t know what kind of a project it’s going to be. Part of this money that we’re approving is going to go to determine whether or not it should be a P3. It might be a P3, we might finance it ourselves. There are a number of options out there. I haven’t been given any assurance as to what kind of method we’re going to use to finance this project.

Mrs. Groenewegen, I think, mentioned that it feels like a bridge project and I have to tell you, I’ve only had one term here but I was unfortunately intimately involved with the bridge project and the cost overruns and just with all the difficult decisions we had to make. I feel very much in the same position. The Minister suggested we should be hardened after the bridge experience. I have to say that I may be hardened but I’m also extremely gun shy. This project does not feel good. It doesn’t feel comfortable.

There are a couple of statements in our briefings and also today from the Minister that we’ve got to hit some timelines. We have to do this and we have to do that. We’re being pressured on a number of fronts, one in terms of time, apparently, and one in terms of the federal government. I don’t think we need to be pressured and I don’t think we should accept that pressure, because it’s rushing our decision on this project.

Somebody talked about dancing to the tune of the Prime Minister and I thought that was a pretty apt quote. I think that was Mr. Yakeleya and I have to agree with him. I think we are dancing to somebody else’s tune and I think it’s important that we dance to our own tune. There doesn’t seem to be a willingness, I guess, on the part of the government to exert our autonomy, to make a statement that no, this is not something we want to go to unless we really do want to go there. I feel like we’re not really making a valid decision.

I have a great deal of concern with the timing of this request. I have expressed before, I don’t

understand why we as Members were not advised, we had no inkling of a $2.5 million request coming forward in this session. We approved a $1 million expense for the capital budget for 2012-13, and at that time there was, to my mind, no indication that we were going to be asked for more money. I didn’t get a valid explanation or I didn’t get a lengthy explanation that this project is in the works. This project is ramping up. We’re going to be having to make some decisions in the near future. We’re probably going to come back and ask you for some money and it will probably be a couple of million dollars. I don’t remember hearing that at all. I think if I had been aware of that in the fall and in December when we discussed the capital budget, I’d have a much different view of this request at this point right now.

Economic development has been mentioned a number of times and I appreciate that we are assisting a region that is struggling, that has no economic development, that needs the economic development, but it’s not the only region in our territory. I feel really strongly that we definitely need to assist this region but we don’t need to do it in a hurry. If the reason for doing this project and doing it in a such a hurry is economic development, well, then from my region, where’s a road through the Slave Geologic Province? Mining is struggling in our territory. It’s struggling in my community. A road through the Slave Geologic would have a huge impact on mining and exploration in the NWT, but that doesn’t seem to be there.

A couple of other things. There’s a lack of a risk assessment. That’s been mentioned and that is a concern for me. There’s the ongoing maintenance once the construction is done. There doesn’t seem to be information on what that’s going to cost us. This is building a road in basically new territory. There are not a lot of roads built in this kind of an environment throughout the world. We really don’t know what maintenance is going to cost us. There hasn’t been an adequate cost-benefit analysis, at least not a recent one. The one that we have been given to have a look at is a couple of years old. Those things absolutely concern me.

I think – and it’s been mentioned already, but I agree with it – that this project is going to take away from other projects that we may want, other elements of our budget, and it’s important for me to recognize that this expense, I think, is going to force us to leave some other things undone.

I see my time is up. I just want to see if I can get my last shot in here. I think I’m done. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I have more, I’ll come back on the list. Thank you.