Here's the transcript!
What was that I heard from our Minister today?
Randy:
When are we gonna see this deal - when are we gonna see a paper written copy of that deal?
Cabinet Directive #
Well I'm gonna do something that has probably never been done on open-line or any media outlet before by a Cabinet Minister - I'm gonna read you the Cabinet Directive now - as to how we bring this deal to its final conclusion and it will essentially I think answer some of the questions that have been posed by some of your ah callers - ah ah some obviously can never be answered because their not asking em with looking for answers (he laughs). Ah especially the political people who called in - ah anyway - this is the guts of of of the the Conditional Agreement - the Agreement in Principle - pending obviously the final legal agreement that has to be has to be put together - as you would expect - ah and ah and this is what the final legal agreement basically has to reflect.
(1) The consortium to provide at no cost all regular scheduled maintenance on unlit fibre optic strands.
(2) Each of the consortium partners provides assurances of its contribution to ah to the project.
(3) The Consortium submits a plan - this is a build plan basically - satisfactory to officials outlining the development of the fibre optic network.
(4) The consortium is held fully liable for any capital project cost overruns.
(5) The consortium to post a performance bond and
(6) The consortium to provide Government open and unencumbered access to the fibre optic infrastructure.
(7) Minister of Innovation Trade and Rural Development (ITRD) is to provide independent oversight of establishment of the fibre optic infrastructure built to ensure that Government's requirements are independently validated.
(8) Minister of ITRD in collaboration with the Minister of Education is to consult with Memorial University of Newfoundland and the College of the North Atlantic to ensure the fibre optic infrastructure will meet their research needs.
(9) The Office of the Chief Information Officer is to be consulted to ensure continuity with Government's data networks.
(10) Approval was given for the issue of an Order in Council pursuant to Section 32 ah three two i or one - whatever - of the Public Tender Act when upon the opinion of the Minister of ITRD to exempt procurement of fibre optic strands of an off-island and on-island fibre optic communications link from a Public Tender call for economic development purposes - cause obviously we didn't do an RFP right. That deals with that issue.
(11) The Province is to invoke a regional economic development exemption under the Agreement on Internal Trade Article 508.1 - for this instance of Government procurement. (and that's something we do from time to time and I guess we'll have to do it and I've been directed to do it also on the ferry build)
(12) The approval was given for the issuance of an Order in Council pursuant to Section 26.4 of the Financial Administration Act - to authorize the Department of ITRD to pre-commit funds of 10 million dollars and 5 million dollars against its budgetary appropriations for fiscal years 2007-08 - 2008-09 respectively to facilitate the procurement of fibre optic strands in an off-island and on-island fibre optic communications link. (So just to be clear - again - we're buying the fibre optic strands - we're not investing in this consortium - we're not a partner in in in the consortium once the build is completed - we'll actually own our own fibre and they'll go on and do their business and we'll essentially go and do our business.)
Randy:
So they will be responsible for maintenance of that fibre?
Trevor:
While its unlit - and I'll get to the second part...
Randy:
Now when we mean unlit - we mean its not in use?
Trevor:
Yeah that's right - and there's still maintenance required on it - as you know- and if for example somebody happens to hook the cable and break it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for example - their maintenance budget will be responsible for ah ah for that while we're unlit. Obviously once we become lit - ah which we hope to do at some point in the future - ah but that'll be done through a public tender process - as I indicated previously - and it'll be consistant with Government's broadband strategy and we'll we'll we'll look for somebody to operate-n-manage governments ah ah IT section for lack of better way of puttin it. Ah I'll just continue on - there's a couple more points.
(13) Minister of ITRD and the Minister of Municipal Affairs responsibility for Emergency Preparedness are to meet with the telecommunications carriers to develop a set of inter-connection protocols such that sufficient safe-guards are in place to ensure public safety in the event of a system failure within one carrier's infrastructure. (Which is what I've spoken about before on mutual-aid and reciprocal agreement - what have you. So we're directed - myself and currently Jack Byrne or whoever the Ministers happen to be at the time - to negotiate this between ah between what will be at that time 4 carriers in the Province.)
(14) The Department of ITRD in consultation with Departments of Finance - Justice - and Office of the Chief Information officer is directed to assess the need to establish a separate corporation to own the fibre optic strands. (So that'll be similar to what we did the Arnold's Cove quota - we have Government couldn't hold the quota itself - ah when we purchased it from Highliner - so we had to find a body in government - so to speak - that could hold that quota for us - and similarly we'll explore that option here - could be the same body maybe we'll you know ah Newfoundland Government IT Company Inc. or something like that - I dunno know what ya-know but ya know what I mean.)
(15) And finally the Minister of ITRD in consultation with the Office of the Chief Information Officer is directed to initiate a study of the technical and financial issues related to establishment of a similar fibre optic connection to Labrador and make a recommendation to Government as to its feasibility.
"So if you want open and accountable government and we're tryin to our extent to the extent possible to do that - ah once we've filtered out proprietary information ahh that obviously wouldn't be released under a ATIP request ah ah that's in the EWA Report ah that we commissioned last spring - ah May - June - ah ish - I guess it was - ah once that's done ah we'll certainly ah release that information also - which will provide the background against which this decision was taken ah yaknow I think we done our due diligence - as I said before on this - and ah the legal text that has to be drafted now between us and the consortium to finally ah finally move forward on this - in advance on any funds being flowed - ah will cover off most of the rest - if not all of the rest of the concerns and issues that people have raised."
Sue's Blog will comment on various sections - over 3-4 posts - today and tomorrow.
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