Thank you. I just want to say that next on my list I have Mr. Blake and Mr. Moses, and then I’m going to return to Mr. Bromley. I’m just giving everybody a chance to make their comments and I’ll return to Mr. Bromley. So, next I have Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As to the $5 million, I am in support of that. It seems that we’ve actually gone beyond the $5 million and started talking about the total project, so I guess I’ll follow the same lines. I’d like to ask the Minister how many projects similar to the Inuvik-Tuk highway – people are referencing the Deh Cho Bridge, whether it’s realignment of Highway No. 3, the Ingraham Trail – has the federal government committed to an investment as a percentage as we did on the Inuvik-Tuk highway? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you. Madam Chair. We’ve had, over the years, federal investments through the Build Canada funding, if that’s what the Member is referring to, where we’ve taken full advantage of the cost-shared dollars. As a very specific example, there are no really large projects that come to mind, but with all the projects, we literally put… No, actually, over three years we’ve put a billion dollars of infrastructure in the last government on the ground, combined with our dollars and the federal dollars taking full advantage of all those dollars as we were fighting off the impacts of the huge economic downturn in 2008. Thank you.

Thank you. My next question is, as everyone is well aware, we have an employment rate of 35 percent. So we have 65 percent of unemployment in our communities. How will this project impact the unemployment rate in our small communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It will have an immediate impact on the unemployment levels in the whole region, not just in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik, but the surrounding communities. I imagine there will be a workforce drawn from those communities as well. I imagine we’ll have an immediate impact on the unemployment levels in the communities in the Beaufort-Delta.

My final question is coming to training. How soon can we see the training begin in the communities of the Beaufort-Delta? Also, a few years back when industry was in Inuvik, they did a lot of training over the summer. They actual speeded things up in instances where we had young people there without a licence. Within two to three weeks, they had their actual Class 1 licence, and I’ve seen them move on to become a lot of good equipment operators. Whether it’s the Minister of Transportation or the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, will he commit to offering those same types of training immediately?

Thank you, Mr. Blake, for that question. I just want to get the committee’s concurrence here because I know what Mr. Blake said, that we’ve gone from the $5 million on this page to really debating the whole Inuvik-Tuk highway. Mr. Blake has indicated he’s just following suit because other people have decided that this is the go/no-go, this is the lynch pin on this project, so this is the appropriate place to have this discussion. I just want to get committee’s concurrence that everybody is still cool with this. It’s not specifically related to the $5 million, the questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

Am I cool with it?

---Laughter

I had an intense flashback when you said that. When this supplementary appropriation gets, hopefully, the approval of this Assembly, then it will trigger a whole host of processes that will address the issues by the Member to make sure that we start tooling up, that this project brings good fortune to all parts of the Beaufort-Delta. It raises everybody’s boats. We want to make sure we have maximum employment. We want to make sure we use all the local businesses that we can locally, and that commitment is given. Once we get the thumbs up and we know we’re in business, that process will be triggered.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Blake.

No further questions.

I’m sorry. I hope my comments didn’t discourage you from continuing. I have Mr. Moses next.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to clarify on a couple of things with the $5 million here because there have been some discussions, and you mentioned it quite well there, in terms of this having become more of a discussion of more than the $5 million and the project itself. I have heard some comments as we’re trying to move forward on a best guess as well as some assumptions on the project and cost overruns. I just wanted to confirm with the Minister

today, I know that we did go out for some other cost estimates.

Can the Minister maybe just elaborate on how many cost estimates did we go out for and the expertise of advice that we did get from these contractors doing the cost estimates, to bring the number before committee and before the House today to make the decision on and that it’s more than just the best guess or assumption in terms of the cost of this project? Can he just elaborate and confirm for Members here today that it’s a sound number, that they in fact went to the Prime Minister with today, just so that Members know that it was expertise that went and got these cost estimates?

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This project has a long history and some of the initial numbers were very basic estimates. Over time we’ve used two separate consultants as well as the expertise within the Department of Transportation to refine the estimate to the point where it is today. Part of the upfront sunk costs that we talked about, the millions that we put into it, was to do that so that we could make the most informed decision possible. So we’ve had two consulting firms and the Department of Transportation separately looking at this to help us refine the numbers.

Thanks for the clarification, confirmation. I think that maybe some Members were taken aback and thinking that was possibly a best guess in terms of the cost of the project here.

Moving forward with the $5 million, can the Minister confirm whether that $5 million is on top of the $299 million or is it part of the $299 million and that’s where he’s coming from, so that when Members are speaking of cost overruns they have a clear understanding that this $5 million is either part of the $299 million or not part of the $299 million.

It is part of the $299 million.

More just clarification of a couple of items here in terms of moving forward specifically on this one page for the $5 million, and moving forward with the geotechnical work and some of the other preparatory work to start moving on this project here. I just want to get a little bit of clarification and let all Members kind of understand what this $5 million was for and where it’s coming from. Just more of a comment there and just for clarity and for the confirmation.

The two basic areas are going to be to prove up the gravel sources from probable to proven, and the other big piece is to conclude the geotechnical work that needs to be done so that we can move the design

from the 85 percent complete to the 100 percent complete in time for construction this coming fall.

No further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Just before I go back to Mr. Blake, speaking of who is cool and who isn’t cool, I will recognize my husband in the gallery here today.

---Applause

He’s cool. Next I’ll have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to follow up on a few of the comments and questions we’ve heard here. The first is the assumption that had been made. I don’t think many assumptions are being made, but we do have a number of risks out there, and the assumption is that some of them will prove to be real.

I’d just like to know, in the number of projects that the Minister is familiar with of this nature – and I know, as the Minister said, we’ve never done a project of this magnitude – but where we have an 85 percent design going into it, how many of them has he known the cost to go down on?