Thanks, Mr. Chair. I sit on the economic development and environment committee, and I do have concerns with the bill. In fact, I most likely will be voting against it. My concerns really revolve around a couple of areas. First off, I do not believe that this is a requirement for Marine Transportation Services to operate; and secondly, I am concerned about the purpose of the revolving fund, and what it covers and what it doesn't cover. Lastly, I also believe that setting this up as a revolving fund will limit the ability of Regular MLAs to have oversight on capital acquisitions of marine transportation systems.
I also want to state clearly for the record that I do support our government operating this in the absence of a private sector operator, and we do want to make sure that our remote communities have access to transportation systems. I certainly support that. My concerns are with setting this up as a revolving fund. I do have some questions for the Minister, and I would like to start with if he could tell us who was consulted in preparing the bill? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
