Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Stanton Renewal Project is the most expensive project in the history of the Northwest Territories financed by the GNWT. So, news that one of its key private partners might be in financial trouble is naturally causing serious alarm among residents and colleagues.
The government has established the practice of creating P3 relationships for its recent major infrastructure projects. P3s are a common practice intended to help bring private sector money and expertise to a project while increasing accountability, protecting from cost overruns, and reducing the risk to taxpayers from things possibly going wrong. At least, that's what we're led to understand.
What happens when one of the private partners is unable to meet its commitments? We were faced with that question recently when the partnership undertaking the Mackenzie fibre optic line had internal troubles, and now we face that question once again. The Boreal Health Partnership, or BHP, is the private consortium responsible for the construction and management of the Stanton Renewal Project. The P3 partnership covers not only the design and construction of the building, but the financing and operating of the hospital for the next 30 years. That's a considerable investment that NWT residents have made in this project and this partnership. A 50 per cent partnership in BHP is held by Carillion Plc, a company with considerable project experience in the health sector, but now Carillion Plc is under liquidation. This raises serious concerns and questions about our public investment and the future management of our health services.
Mr. Speaker, even if the NWT taxpayers are shielded from financial risk by the terms of the P3 agreement, they deserve to be assured that our health services are secure and in good hands. So, how will we mitigate the loss of Carillion's known expertise in health services management? What is the contingency plan, if any? How much oversight will the government have in selecting new partners? These are critical questions.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, the Stanton project is not only the most expensive public project undertaken in the North; the health services it will provide are an essential "public trust" between Northerners and this government. Our residents require certainty that financial events across the ocean will not place that public trust at risk. At the appropriate time I'll have questions for the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
