David Ramsay

Madam Speaker, the GNWT public tender process was followed. Three compliant bids were received and evaluated. Those bid prices ranged from $1.149 million to over $4.1 million. The lowest acceptable bid was deemed suitable and the award letter was sent out at the end of January. To my knowledge, that was followed.

If the Member would like further details, he is able to see, through ATIPP, whatever he wants to view. We provided the Member with whatever we could provide him with. Thank you.

That is something that we could do. Perhaps the Member could also get the EDI committee to write to us. I’d be more than happy to work with my colleague Mr. McLeod with MACA to get a better understanding of how this would work, and I look forward to a letter from committee, and the commitment of the Member to take a look at this and put some tangible things in place so that we can make a difference here.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I believe composting can play a very big role. We were just down in Hay River this fall opening the egg grading facility there. I had an opportunity to tour the chicken barns that are there, and the amount of manure that is produced from those barns and how that’s going to be used as compost into developing other types of agricultural development in the South Slave. It was something that was very interesting.

I think there is a role for composting in communities that can take a look at it, and it is something that I know we have an agreement with the federal government...

Thank you. Any chance I get. Today it was at least three times. Any opportunity we get to let our federal colleagues know about what is happening in the Sahtu. Again, we have the National Energy Board here today. I met earlier today with the BDIC through my department at ITI. We really are getting the word out about what is happening there.

There’s going to be close to $700 million spent in the Sahtu in the coming few years. So we need to ensure that we are answering that call and we intend to do just that.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We continue our work on developing guidelines for hydraulic fracturing here in the Northwest Territories and we are going to make sure that we get it right. We’ve engaged a number of experts in the area and, in fact, even today had a meeting with the National Energy Board here in our Legislature. Also, last week we were speaking to the Government of Alberta through Minister Ken Hughes, the Minister of Energy in Alberta.

There are a lot of folks out there that want to help make sure that the Northwest Territories gets this right. We’re also following developments out...

I do, thank you.

Again, we will run this past our lawyers and we will find out if we can provide that level of detail to the Member. Whatever we can provide to the Member, we will give to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. When DOT awards a contract, obviously they are going to go back to the company that won the contract and do a technical review of the information that was provided in the tender documents to ensure the due diligence is done to ensure the work can be performed as stated in the tender, and in the case of the electrical contract for the bridge, that was done. We haven’t had Can-Traffic do work for us before, so we were extra diligent on trying to find out and get the references, and do that technical review before that contract was awarded. Madam Speaker, any information...

Madam Speaker, they were not credited with any northern content, yet again, they were $800,000 below the next… And this is after the BIP adjustment. They were $800,000 below the next bidder, saving taxpayers’ money.

As to whether or not Appendix B was filled out, I can get the Member a yes or no answer to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This tender was won fair and square. It was won by Can-Traffic at a cost savings of about $800,000 to the taxpayer here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.