Major N.W.T. bridge announcement coming: MLA

A major announcement about the controversial Deh Cho Bridge project is expected to be made on Friday, according to Northwest Territories MLAs.

Members have attended two confidential briefings this week with N.W.T. Transportation Minister Michael McLeod about the bridge, which has been wrought with financing debates, contract disputes and construction delays over the past two years.

Although MLAs were told not to talk about that meeting, or what the announcement will contain, Hay River South MLA used her member's statement on Thursday to say the latest news will be big.

"I am going to stand up here in this house, in a reply to the opening address, and I am going to lay bare all the facts of this project," Groenewegen said in the legislature.

Groenewegen said the bridge project, and the upcoming announcement, "potentially has the ability to impact this government more than anything else that has ever come across my desk in the 15 years that I've been an MLA."

Groenewegen asked that the government make the announcement before MLAs begin sitting at 10 a.m. on Friday.

McLeod would not say when the announcement will be made, because the government is still in sensitive negotiations with the Deh Cho Bridge Corp., the project's contractors and lenders.

"In fact, with the information we provided, it's all — at this point — should be kept confidential," he said.

"But the members wanted a statement in public, and I committed to do that."

The $165-million bridge will span across the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence, N.W.T., and link Yellowknife to southern Canada year-round, replacing the current summer ferry service and winter ice road.

Officials with the bridge corporation announced in July 2009 that construction would be at least one year behind schedule.

And last month, the government announced that Miramichi, N.B.-based Atcon Construction will no longer be the bridge's general contractor. The bridge corporation has until March 1 to find a new contractor.