Thank you, committee. Page 7, Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $330,000. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question. Obviously, with the news today about JK and the assessment, have these

expenditures already been done or are they being done in the next little while? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. For that, we’ll go to Deputy Minister Aumond.

Obviously, I guess we would need to assess whether Colville is one of the 23 that is going to continue with Junior Kindergarten, and if it hasn’t been spent, would they still like to be invested in that? I mean, I think that’s relative to today’s statements in the House and maybe clarification where they’re at status-wise and where they want to be going forward as well.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will double check that, but I understand, talking to the Member for Sahtu, that Colville Lake is very pleased with the Junior Kindergarten and is intent on keeping it operational.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, we are on page 7, Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make the same comment on this page that I made yesterday in talking about the operations expenditures. These projects have been completed and yet we are only now being asked to appropriate the funds. I won’t say more than that, but we have violated, I guess, for lack of a better word, a policy that we have as a government, that we don’t spend money until it has gone through an appropriation in this House, and all three of these projects are completed at this point and yet the money is only just now being approved. Just a comment.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll take it as a comment, but if Mr. Miltenberger has any comment to that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments that we made yesterday in response to the concerns raised by Ms. Bisaro I’ll let stand so we don’t take up too much needless space in Hansard and chew people’s cabbage twice.

Committee, we’re on page 7, Education, Culture and Employment, capital investment expenditures, education and

culture, not previously authorized, $330,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $330,000. Does committee agree?

Committee, continuing on to page 8, Transportation, capital investment expenditures, airports, not previously authorized, $700,000. Highways, not previously authorized, $40.1 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $40.8 million. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, obviously, had some questions about the highway, the Tuk to Inuvik highway, and the expenditures there. I guess we should be celebrating the fact that we’re going to look to accelerate this project and move forward. It sounds like the project could be moved forward and get done earlier than expected. I’m assuming with that we’re on budget, as well, but the difficulty comes in the fact that we’re asked to approve these budgets, and the Tuk to Inuvik highway was one of those dilemmas.

As a Member from the south, is that a project that we would support or not support? We ended up supporting the project because we knew there was going to be economic benefit to the region, which all indications are that the economic opportunities there were limited. There are a lot of people unemployed, and this was going to provide an opportunity for those people. Now that we’re in the midst of the project, now we get the department coming to us and saying, well, we just need to get the job done, the contractor agrees that we can move it forward and get it done. Now we’re wiping away those issues of economic development, the training, the implications of how this project will affect the Beaufort-Delta, and not only the individuals but the companies that are involved.

I guess my concerns are the fact that yes, I’m happy to hear that, but on the other hand, it seems like when we do these projects it’s just “let’s get it done.” We’re seeing some of that dilemma in big contracts, even construction of our hospital in Hay River. It’s a big contract. It seems like we just need to get it done. We have a contractor that seems to push our subcontractors, some of the local and northern contractors, to go let’s just get it done. We need to get this done. You need to put more money to it. We have a schedule but now we need you to ramp it up because we want to get done early and we want to maximize our potential and maybe even take on more profit. My concerns are that we are accelerating this not to the benefit of the Northwest Territories but the benefit of just getting it done and the benefit may be potentially to the contractors.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Having lived through the

construction of the bridge, I can assure the Member that getting it done on time has very many benefits, and preferably on budget, because the Legislature clearly takes a dim view of projects that came in over budget and over time. This particular project has been, from the start, a four-year project, with the first three years focusing where the majority of work is on the building of the embankments and the final year of the finishing and putting in the top layer of gravel. While we are attempting to accelerate the project, the intent is to catch up with what didn’t get built last year so that we can still hit that three-year major embankment work time schedule. There will be no loss of opportunity to anybody affiliated with the project, either the employees or the owners of the company. The whole intent is to still work within that four-year period with the money that’s available.

I guess going forward with this project, obviously, now it seems like we’re accelerating the funds anyway. Maybe the project is going to be close to the anticipated schedule, but I mean, we’re actually accelerating the payment and the funds. Have we talked to the federal government about trying to accelerate payments and will our commitment and the federal government’s commitment match up as far as accelerating now?

There is an arrangement with the federal government where we can put in for payments for every 10 kilometres completed, and the arrangement is quite timely. There is a two to three week turnaround. The $40 million will only be drawn down based on progress, so for every 10 kilometres we’ll go back and we’ll get a payment. I’ll get the deputy minister just to reiterate for us the percentage. The majority of the money that’s going to be coming forward, at least 60 percent will be coming from the federal government. But with your agreement, Mr. Chair, I would ask the deputy minister to speak to that.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bouchard.