Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Negotiated Contracts Policy is one that we do use throughout the Northwest Territories, as the Member highlighted. We have a number of other tools that we use, as well, and it was referenced in this House about the memorandums of understanding with a number of the Aboriginal groups around contracting, and negotiated contracts falls in that to help meet some of those targets. Some of the work that we need to do in those areas and in reference to the Sahtu is to get a better understanding of the businesses that would qualify.

I must say that, for example in the...

Thank you. As I believe I said, but I will confirm, that in fact when we responded to the standing committee it was a request to Executive to do an overview of this process on the Deh Cho Bridge Project and that was provided to committee and we’ll send it again. In there it referenced the fact that the Financial Administration Act was under review to look at these types of issues as future governments would look towards these types of projects or indemnifications.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The indemnification that occurred is a normal part of business and part of that is the requirement to notify Members 14 days in advance, I think is the crux of the matter here, but that is a normal part of the process. There wasn’t an extra decision to not provide that. So it was just a part of normal process and through our many briefings to committee, Members were aware that this indemnification occurred. Thank you.

Thank you. The area of the Food Mail Program, again, as a government department we’ve handled it through a number of departments in the past. At this point, through Minister Lee’s office she has the charge of working with the groups on this and any information or concerns that people have, or Members have on that and communities, we can pool that together and through her office make the connection and raise those concerns. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The food mail issue has indeed been raised here a number of times in past sessions and during this session. We worked and supported the work of many groups in the North to have that program reviewed by the federal government. It’s our understanding, through Minister Lee’s office, that they are going to delay implementation of the new program for a year, is my understanding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome my constituents to this House: Charlie and Ann Kasook, and as was recognized earlier, Ann’s commitment to our community. I can remember a long time ago, it seems like almost 15, close to 16 years ago, some of my first meetings, Ann called me in to talk about the transition house and the help they needed. So keep up the good work and thank you very much.

The work that’s being done with the consultations that need to go out, with the work with Members of this Assembly, all the avenues I think we’ve had discussions about will be looked at in one degree or another, but the final product needs to go through our system of working with committee members and getting feedback from the residents of the Northwest Territories.

I guess the process, if I understand properly the question, goes to with the as and whens in many of our communities are posted on an annual basis for businesses to put their names in and show interest in that area, to provide those services in our communities and regions. We do have a process established of doing that. I’m not sure if the Member is requesting that we look at them through our other programs that we have there. That is something I guess we can look at from time to time where capacity issues need to be met.

One of the things we do have to look at as a government is the cost of...

In fact, the Power Corporation with the new chair and the new president/CEO are beginning to look at the ways the Power Corporation can be more involved across our Territory with the customer base, whether it’s residential or industry side, to look at a balance and to see how we can be more proactive in looking to the solutions that we may be able to find here in the Territory and provide that it meets a number of targets that we would set towards a Greenhouse Gas Strategy, towards reducing the cost of living in the North and being sustainable.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Government of the Northwest Territories we use a number of tools to do just what the Member has spoken to, building capacity throughout the North both in our people and in our construction industry, for example. We have, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Business Incentive Policy, we have the Negotiated Contracts Policy, we have MOUs within a number of regions, and continue to negotiate renewals and new MOUs being put in place. We try to use as many of those tools as possible. Internally one of the things we‘ve done to look at the capacity issue...