Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d again like to welcome the Minister and department here today regarding the supplementary appropriations of infrastructure before us. Really there is one line entry that I’d like to do some general comments on, which probably is the bulk of the appropriation for us for $40 million, which is the adjustment in cash flow for the Inuvik-Tuk highway.

As mentioned in the Minister’s opening comments, they’re to accommodate an accelerated construction schedule. This has also been discussed a couple times here in this sitting, so I don’t want to get into the details. We’ve heard some of them already before on the floor of the House, but I do want to say, first and foremost, that I supported this project. I believe this is an important piece of infrastructure for the Northwest Territories. I believe it’s a vital link between north and south and I just want to make that clear. I believe what we’re embarking on is something good for our overall transportation system and to the people of the Beau-Del.

So I want to really emphasize that my concern here today is not really about the project management that might come up in discussions with other Members here, I believe that’s not the area of concern. The area of concern that I think Members have, as I have discussed many times here, is our financial position as a government and the fact that we have gotten very close to our debt wall or wall of worry, I like to remind folks. The fact is that we are now accelerating this project at lightning speed and things are moving pretty fast again and we’ve got some pressing values, as the Minister likes to remind us.

I’m concerned, like many, that by pushing this project forward in the speed that we’re doing, the cash flow to this government is going to be compromised. There’s going to be a hampering, if you will, that other projects could be affected as a result of this accelerated process. Let me remind

people who are following in on this that we’re not just talking about a $40 million accelerated appropriation in this appropriation, we’re also talking that has yet to be discussed, but it is tabled, that we have another $20 million on the Inuvik-Tuk highway, as well, in the capital estimates. So really, in essence what we’re saying is we’re accelerating this project by virtue of over $60 million in this fiscal year, which means that when you’ve got tight cash flow the question is, can we afford it, and I think that’s an important question.

It’s a question that I believe that we need to hear the soothing words of Cabinet, we need to hear the soothing words of the Finance Minister or a designate, can we afford this accelerated cash flow making sure nothing under any queue or the order of government in terms of where we’re spending our money next is, or will be, affected. I think it’s an important question. This ship has sailed. I don’t want to put any kibosh… I don’t want to put any concern that I’m going to vote no to this. I will be supporting this appropriation, but I need to understand the money. I need to understand the cash flow because I think that’s the element that is missing here. I will have a question in a second here with respect to the negotiated contract itself in terms of how we formulate it because of the concern of this cash flow.

With that, I think it’s important, I’ll just maybe talk about that now, is that it appears by design, the way we have this contract for the construction of this road, that the contractor has no restrictions in terms of accelerating the program. We have no restrictions on the contract to put any failsafes on this accelerated speed and we have no restrictions on cash flow or time. So what worries me, and I’m not sure if this is precedent, and if it was a smaller project I probably wouldn’t be as concerned because of the smaller value of cash, but we are talking literally by virtue of one of the largest projects we have on our books. We’re talking an appropriation which is quite large here and I’m concerned that the way we designed our contract, a contractor could accelerate their project and the taxpayer is literally obliged to follow in using monies that may not have necessarily been earmarked for that fiscal year, which could put a hampering on cash flow.

So again, just to summarize, I’m not concerned about the project management issue here. If the contractor is ambitious and has proven the ability to build this highway quicker than agreed upon, that’s good news. I’m supportive of that. I mean, I’m assuming we’ve got people on the ground, we’ve got the people in place as project managers to make sure that that will be successful. The question I have here is the affordability of an accelerated cash program and the debt wall that we’ve just heard earlier, the fact that we are inching to that $275 million benchmark in our short-term

borrowing. The fact that we’ve neared and will be surpassing that $100 million cushion in our long-term borrowing, this definitely will have an impact on our cash management and our debt borrowing capacity for the remainder of the life of the 17th Assembly.

I think the Minister and the Finance department have heard me speak about this before. This is nothing new to their ears. Maybe if we can get clarification on impacts of this accelerated cash flow on the borrowing and whether or not it will affect other projects.

The third element in this comment is, you know, is this the standard process for doing negotiated contracts where the contractor nor us, as the project manager, have any controls or restrictions on either cash flow or time constraints for the job completion?

So if I can get some clarification in those three areas, it would definitely shed a lot of light and even make my support even that much more enthusiastic. But again, I will support the appropriation, but I definitely need to hear that clarity moving forward. Thank you.