Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to update Members and the public on the Community Access Program administered by the Department of Transportation.

Communities and residents are benefiting greatly from this program, especially in our small rural and remote communities.

The Community Access Program provides funding contributions to communities for local access roads, trails and winter roads to nearby attractions such as hunting, fishing and wood gathering areas and recreational sites. The 16

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significantly expanded this program through the Refocusing Government Strategic Initiative, based on recommendations from the Committee on the Sustainability of Rural and Remote Communities. Beginning this fiscal year, the Community Access Program has provided contributions to communities for a wide array of projects, now including local boating and marine projects and winter access to granular resources. Also, the available funding was significantly increased from $320,000 to $1 million so that a greater number of projects can be done each year and more communities can benefit.

Mr. Speaker, our regional superintendents have been working closely with the communities in their

regions to support projects that meet local priorities, and I am pleased to report that our communities have seized the opportunity. In 2010-11 the Department of Transportation is funding 21 community-based projects across the Territory. The program has created community jobs and training opportunities that has helped build project management capacity in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, the benefits of this program extend far beyond the construction phase. These trails and dock projects provide healthy recreational opportunities for our youth and improve access to the land for traditional activities. There is also a sense of community pride and accomplishment that comes along with delivering these community-based priority projects.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation is doing its part to deliver on this Assembly’s goal of sustainable, vibrant, safe communities through the Community Access Program. This has always been a very popular program for communities and now that we are able to fund even a greater number and variety of projects that is even more popular.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the support of my colleagues in the Assembly for making additional funds available so that this important program could be expanded. While the program is fully subscribed for 2010-11, the Department of Transportation staff are continuing to work closely with community leaders to identify future projects that will be considered under the Community Access Program in 2011-12. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Some

of

this

information is available publicly. Our financial audit is done on an annual basis. It’s reviewed by the Auditor General. The information is something we can certainly share. Mr. Speaker, we’ve asked for some committee time to talk about some of the details regarding schedules, regarding budgets and things of that nature. I believe we’ve managed to secure some time so we can have an opportunity to sit down and look at some of these things in depth, including the risk matrix and things of that nature that maybe will provide some comfort to the Members with further detail. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We are closely tracking all expenditures. We have a breakdown, we have cash flow charts, we have variances, we have spreadsheets that provide all the information that the Member has brought forward, we have a breakdown of the budget by various components, we provide year-to-year expenditures on each item and we forecast each expenditure to the completion of the project, so we do have all the information and we do track it very closely. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we do have status reports that are compiled on a daily

basis by the different companies that we have. We also do our own. We do it on a weekly and monthly basis. We certainly can provide a reconciliation of where the expenditures are versus the construction schedule. Mr. Speaker, we are a little over 80 percent, moving towards 85 percent of our expenditures, of our budget being spent, and we’re probably at the same level with our construction schedule. So roughly a little more than 80 percent of our budget is spent and a little more than 80 percent of our contract schedule is concluded. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Transportation and our officials track all expenditures and have the monthly reports, the daily reports and the annual auditing of all revenues and expenditures. Thank you.

Yes, but, Mr. Speaker... Mr. Speaker, that’s correct, but if there are any issues that arise that are attributed to something we’ve done or that are under our responsibility, then we would have to absorb those costs. Thank you.

It would depend on who the responsibility of the delay or the cost overrun, who it would apply to. If it was the contractor’s issue, then they would have to eat those costs. If it was the responsibility of our government, if it was an issue that could be attributed to something we did or we were responsible for, then we’d have to pay for it.

Thank you. It’s a difficult situation we’re in. We have our contractors that are listening to this discussion, we’ve already been contacted by the contractors raising concerns over some of the Member’s comments that are in the contract. There’s a proprietary issue that we’re dealing with here. These issues are dealt with in the contract. I’m not in a position to disclose it at this time, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have to reassure the Member that these issues were things that were taken into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to still meet in the middle, but the approach has changed somewhat, as the Member has indicated. The delay in steel has caused the approach to change. The plan is now to

work on the north side and things are going very well. The contractor has been doing some very good work in launching the steel. We should be hitting the fourth pier or the final pier on the north side relatively soon and construction will continue with the tower as we deal with the breakup of the ice. The plan is to have all the trusses be worked on and put together during the breakup time and be ready for launching as soon as the river is clear.

Mr. Speaker, we still are working towards our goal of having the bridge opened in the fall and there’s no denying there are challenges out there. The delay of steel is one. The breakup of the river is another one, and as I indicated the other day in questions during question period, the ability for us or for our contractor to do work that was planned for warmer weather that has to be done in the cold season or the latter part of the fall is something that we have to work out.

There are many things that are out there that challenge us almost every day. If the weather is colder than minus 35, then we for sure have to take into consideration the safety of the workers and I think there’s a policy that restricts them from working in that temperature. If there are strong winds, they can’t be up on the towers. Those towers are way up in the air on top of the ice and that’s an issue. Also, we were challenged this year when we were caught off guard with the ferry shutting down. That was also cause for delay.

So there are many things. We are in continual contact with the contractor and I’m very confident we have a good team and things are continuing to move forward.