Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to provide a bit of an explanation of where I’m coming from with my questions and concerns. I didn’t really go into that fully when I asked questions earlier.
First of all, I’d like to thank Mr. Bromley for bringing up the point that there really is a glacier as part of that road, the Wisconsin Glacier. It is noted in the risk matrix, which the department has recently provided for us. I’d like to also note that the Minister of Finance earlier stated, when he was making some remarks, words to the effect that Members from the south who have everything in the way of infrastructure are against getting the same for those in the Beaufort-Delta area. I was pretty close to being truly offended. That is not my motive. I am quite annoyed that the Minister suggested that is my motive: because I have everything I’m not ready to give something to people who don’t have everything.
The other thing that is really bothering me about this issue is that Members from the north or Members supporting this project seem to think that because I have concerns for this project that I am against them or the project. That again is not true. I do believe in this project, and I do want every region to be prosperous. I don’t wish for people to be living in poverty, for people to be living without jobs, for people to be feeling depressed, and for their whole region to feel down and like they’re never going to get up. I don’t want that.
However, I am quite troubled by the amount of money that we as a government are having to spend on this project. We’ve gone from a promise of 75/25 funding to now where we’ve got in the bag, so to speak, 67/33. That’s more money than what I was hoping we would have to spend. We got less money than what I was hoping for from the federal government.
This is a huge project, and one of my great difficulties in these last few days has been being asked to make a decision on a large amount of
money with little opportunity for some concrete information. I know we are given all the information that the department has and the Minister has at this time. That doesn’t give me much comfort when there’s an awful lot of questions that I still have in my mind and there are an awful lot of unknowns and risks.
For me as a Member, I feel that I have to do due diligence. I have to look at any project and any expense that comes before me that I’m asked to approve, and I have to look at it and determine whether or not it’s the best use of our money. People would say, okay, yeah, we’re getting $200 million from the federal government, so that’s a pretty good use of our money. It’s 33-cent dollars is what we’re spending. But I still have to go back to my belief that the federal government should be funding our new highways 100 percent. So in my mind, that’s a loss. I have a really hard time with that.
If I encounter a project that makes me feel uncomfortable, I have to ask questions about it, and I have to question whether or not the project is of value, whether or not we should go forward with the project. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want a particular community or region to get ahead. It just means that I feel we need to seriously question why we’re doing something, where we’re going with it, and is it a good thing to do. That’s what I’m trying to get across. If people are offended by that, well, I’m sorry.
This particular project makes me feel really uncomfortable. There are risks. I know the department has identified those risks. Many of them are quite high risks because we’re building a road in an area where we haven’t really built roads before. It’s an area that is known to be difficult to build in. Those risks that we do not yet know or that we have out there and don’t know how they’re going to play out, they’re uncontrollable. I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that can say we’re going to go to that spot on the road and we’re going to be able to spend $5 million there and not one penny more. When we get down to a certain level, we’ll discover that, well, oh, that’s where there’s a huge ice lens and, oh, geez, it’s going to cost us $7 million instead for that very same spot. We can’t control those risks, and we can’t control certain expenditures that are going to come up. That’s a real concern for me. This is why I am really hesitant about this project.
Because we have unknowns, I feel that we are at the mercy of something that we can’t control. We’re at the mercy of the unknown. I feel that we are, I’m pretty sure, as I think somebody mentioned earlier today, that we’re going to have to have a Minister come back and ask us for more money for this project somewhere down the line. I’m not quite
ready to bet money on it yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen.
One of the things that I have tried to ignore but can’t is my experience with the Deh Cho Bridge. Once bitten twice shy is an expression that really applies to me here. The Deh Cho Bridge experience was painful. I didn’t enjoy it. I felt very conflicted all the way through, constantly being asked to approve more money, more money, more money, and I get a huge sense of foreboding that this project is very similar to the Deh Cho Bridge.
One of the things that have come out is that a couple of Members have said that I am sort of against this project because I am making assumptions. Well, I think assumptions can work in both ways. On the one hand, you can make an assumption that is positive and ignore the fact that there might be some risks involved. Some people are saying, well, you’re making erroneous assumptions and so therefore your point of view or your opinion or decision is flawed. I feel that, on the other hand, we have to make some assumptions because we don’t have all the facts. That goes back to the risks. There are unknowns in this project. Some of us will make an assumption to the positive, and some of us will make an assumption to the negative. Neither is right, neither is wrong.
Probably the biggest unknown for me in a general sense is that the project is only 85 percent designed. I know this money will go towards finishing that design. But again, we’ve got a lot of bridges. We have a lot of water crossings that we don’t yet know whether or not we’re going to be able to build them for a little bit of money or a lot of money. At this point where I’m being asked to make a decision on something that’s only 85 percent known, I appreciate – I think I used the term best guess earlier – that the estimate is probably a little bit more than a best guess.
But when it comes right down to it, we’ve had people who have looked at this project, they’ve taken their skill, they’ve taken their knowledge, and they have identified an amount as an estimate. But it’s still a bit of a guess. It’s an art. I agree estimation is an art, and I think it’s definitely a very good guess. But it’s a guess because we cannot with certainty say it’s only going to cost us $299 million for that road. If somebody could guarantee me that, I would take them up on it in a heartbeat.
The only other thing I guess I wanted to say is that the Transportation Minister earlier, and I can’t remember quite when, but earlier at some point in time stated that the project wouldn’t go forward without 75/25 funding split from the federal government. I appreciate that things have changed, but it only adds to the sort of negative things for me that are already there in terms of this project. It’s more money for us. It’s causing us to be further in debt. We have yet to know the impact it’s going to
have on other large capital projects down the road. Although the Finance Minister will tell me that’s okay because we planned for $50 million a year and now we’re only $20 million a year, so it’s all good. Hard for me to believe that.
I’m not quite sure. I approve the project. I cannot approve, I think, the funds that we’re being asked to approve here. I think I will, probably I will… I may abstain. I will not vote for this project. I may not vote against it.