The Member’s comments are accurate in terms of how that money fits into the overall budgetary scheme of things, that it’s tied to remediating any deficiencies tied to ATCON’s involvement in the project. It’s separate from the project.

I’ll ask the deputy if he wants to speak to the amount of money that has been expended. Then I will dig back into my memory. I think we’ve spent there, out of the $13 million, I think we’ve spent five, and tied to addressing deficiencies tied to ATCON’s involvement.

That’s all I had on the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you for that confirmation there.

With respect to Highway No. 4, I see that we have lapsed a significant amount of money there, several million dollars. I guess my first question is: What was the budget for that reconstruction? What amount of that original budget was done?

I’m not sure if the Minister actually caught that question. I’d maybe ask if the question could be repeated. The Minister may have that number with him.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Member could just repeat the beginning part of his question, I’d see if I have that number.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question was: What was the original budget for the reconstruction of Highway No. 4? I see we lapsed several million dollars and it’s being carried over and proposed here, but what was the original budget for the work that year?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The budget for the project is about $17 million. As for the budget for that year, I’d have to get that information for the Member.

I think this is the reconstruction of the Ingraham Trail and not the bypass of the Ingraham Trail. I guess my point is, here we are lapsing several million and in fact we know that the Detah road, which has been stopped at about 30 percent completion for several years now, really requires much less than what has been lapsed here in the order of a couple of million dollars for significant work to continue with maximum benefits accumulating to the community and to the road

infrastructure. I am wondering if the Minister would commit as we go forward when there are lapses – it looks like there are – that they would be identified early on if they are not going to be able to do that work and get that work going on the Detah road with an experienced and enthusiastic crew that is ready to do that work. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the Member for his comments and his suggestions and note that for the record, unless the Minister wants to respond in any other specific way.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Minister Ramsay.

Mr. Chair, again, we will get that number for the Member on what the initial budget was. I carry over almost $3.4 million.

Getting back to the Detah access road, we had an opportunity to meet with the Yellowknives Dene and the Akaitcho leadership just last week. One of the issues we talked about was the Detah access road and the importance to get that project complete. I gave the chiefs the assurance that we are going to continue to work to try to get some additional capital dollars from the federal government. When we do, certainly the completion of the work on the Detah access road will be a high priority for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bromley.

I appreciate that information on the ongoing interest of the Minister there. I guess it doesn’t address my point, though, that when we know we are going to lapse from these large adjacent back projects, significant dollars that would be huge to the Detah road project, that we identify those early on and enable that Detah road project to go forward until the bountiful federal government comes forward with additional money. This really is the GNWT’s responsibility. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, the fact remains that the work needs to get done on the Ingraham Trail. There are many areas of that roadway that require work. Just recently I was out at, for example, the Cassidy Point access road. There is going to be some work that is required there to get that access road up to grade. There are other areas of that Ingraham Trail Highway No. 4 that require our attention from a safety standpoint. The money will go there. We will find additional funding as we move forward for the Detah access road, but as it stands, the money is earmarked for reconstruction work on the Ingraham Trail. We will address the issue with the Detah road as soon as we possibly can, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I guess I will stop hammering on that point that I don’t think the Minister answered it yet. I don’t have a problem

with this money being redirected as indicated here, but I am saying as a principle when we know there will be dollars left over, why not direct them to where they can be spent. It would not set this work back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We will take that as a final comment. Moving on on this page here, I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to ask the Minister in regard to the carry-overs and the incompletion of some of the bridges in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister whether there were sticker points that didn’t allow the department to say completion of this bridge or this bridge or this portion of the winter road. I’m speaking about some of the bridges, some pieces of road realignment that possibly we are looking forward to. What were some of those sticker points? Was it due to unforeseen circumstances or is it due to staff being overworked or are organizations not also being in line with plans? Why such huge carry-overs in the Sahtu when the activity of oil and gas is wrapping up?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. For that answer we’re going to go to the Minister of Transportation, Minister Ramsay.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Member described, there is a variety of reasons why that would happen. There were some issues with the work at Bob’s Creek and Strawberry. We continue to work with Pehdzeh Ki Contractors on completing that work and there was a lot of activity, as the Member knows, in the Sahtu. Last winter there was a lot of competition for equipment and workers, and I think that led to some of the work being pushed back or delayed and would result in some of the numbers that we see here in terms of carry-overs.

I guess the positive side to this is there is a lot of work happening. There’s some capital dollars that will still need to be spent in the central Mackenzie Valley and we look forward to getting the work complete. Our primary objective is to complete the work. Thank you.

The Minister is correct; the positive side is that we’re racking up the infrastructure to support the thousands of truckloads that the oil companies bring into the economy of the Northwest Territories, specifically into the NWT into the Sahtu. So I want to ask the Minister about the carry-overs. Does the Minister have a suitable, qualified personnel to say yes, because this is happening we’ll have someone saying you need to get this contract in place, we need to look at this, we need to look at if there’s applications for permits or water licences, we need to do this and put some emphasis into that, otherwise we’re going to have carry-overs?

The Minister is right. The oil companies are also and we’re also, in the Sahtu, looking to provide services for the oil companies and heavy equipment. Sometimes we can’t wait for the department to say, well, here’s a contract and you’ll bid on it or whatever. The oil companies need you right now at double the price they pay the GNWT. So do you want a nice steak sandwich or do you want pizza? You know, what are you going to go for?

So I want to ask the Minister what to do in the Sahtu in regard to the completion of these projects and not have the carry-over.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

As a matter of business and practice as a government, we review our processes and we have to be accountable for carry-overs and we do that. We can look at the things we control. I understand in the circumstance and in the project the Member is talking about there was also issues with the contractor that caused delays and slowed things down. So those types of things have to be managed.

Often we don’t control the outcome or how it may end up being finalized. Our job is to make sure the project gets done. In this case it contributed to the delay and I think resulted in some of the carry-over. This coming year steps will be taken to put all that money to good and effective use.