Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, I will check to see what information is available, and whatever I have access to I will certainly be happy to share it with the Member. In terms of commitments on the bridge, we will certainly want to know what the price is before we make a final commitment. We won’t know what that price is until the contract is tendered and we have something firm from the successful bidder. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it’s not unusual when proponents make submissions for the environmental review process to have it deemed to be incomplete. The information that was provided by the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, to my knowledge, was incomplete. The environmental review board asked for more information that is being provided. The bridge corporation tells me that the environmental review process is still scheduled to be completed by September. So at this point, I don’t have any concerns that this is going to cause a delay. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize a number of people. First of all my wife, Theresa, who is here; Barb Saunders, the executive director for the Council of Status of Women, my faithful constituent; the major for the Salvation Army, Karen Hoeft; and also, I don’t know if he’s left, but Chief Peter Liske was here as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize a constituent: Major Karen Hoeft. Thank you.

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Mr. Speaker, I’m not familiar with any specific case. I trust that every one of the 17 or so northern companies that have picked up the tender documents are picking it up because they feel that it’s to their advantage to put in a bid or at least consider a bid. It could be to make a profit, it could be to keep things moving in their shop. I’m not sure what their reasons would be. I’m certainly encouraged by the number of northern companies who have picked up the documents and, I assume, intend to submit a tender. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly, the 19 Members of the Legislative Assembly agreed that a new approach is needed to develop our agenda and statement of priorities. Members rejected the old method of developing an agenda based solely on our views, and in isolation of other governments in the Northwest Territories. Members felt that it was critical that we embark on a new way of doing business that emphasized partnership and collaboration.

We have started off with informal meetings to explore ideas about the setting of priorities. Discussion focused...

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, we’re discussing it tomorrow at Cabinet. I think the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation has already been asked and said he would consider extending it for two weeks. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation has earlier this week offered that he will bring this to Cabinet on Thursday. We intend to have a full discussion on it as it relates to housing, but no doubt we’ll have a good discussion on the BIP itself generally. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, RWED is doing some work on a registry. There are some other things being done this year. I can assure the Member that if it seems that we have to make exceptions to any policy on any sort of frequent basis, however you define that, then we would want to rewrite or revise that policy...

Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the Member is asking me to have the government do a policy on when we make exceptions to policies.

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That might confuse the whole thing even more. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is working on a contract registry. They’re doing some work in the whole area with BIP and how we do our business. We are going to continue to work on that. We’re going to continue to try to improve on our communications when we need to make an exception. I can assure the business community that by far we will find that we are following our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that in the cases in my experience where the government has had to make an exception to a policy have been driven by competing objectives where we have more than one objective. In the case that the Member is referring to, it has to do with the need for affordable, adequate housing in communities as opposed to ensuring maximum northern benefits. Which one is going to be weighed more highly? We often, Mr. Speaker, make exceptions in another area. Another area as an example is on negotiated contracts. We have a policy on tendering everything and putting it...