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...

Mr. Speaker, I’m honoured to recognize two constituents: Carole Lane and Major Karen Hoeft. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to point out for Members, especially the new Members, that this is a money bill and that Cabinet will be voting on this issue. But we have done the work on it, we feel that 14 percent is justified and it is reasonable, and that all of Cabinet will be voting against this bill. Thank you.

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Mr. Chairman, I will have Mr. Warren give more detail if you want, but it is the advice on a national devolution strategy and communications related to that. Mr. Chairman, if the Member wants more detail, I'll ask Mr. Warren.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled, Deline Self-Government Agreement-in-Principle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, if I understand the question correctly, other departments also have expenses related to negotiations and self-government talks and so on, RWED being one of the main ones. We don't have any plan to bring that into Aboriginal Affairs, but would rather leave that with each department to determine when they have to send people, how many people they would send for issues that directly affect their department. So the intention, for example, with RWED would be to leave those expenses in the department that is responsible for forestry or wildlife or whatever the issues are that they...

Mr. Chairman, each Cabinet Minister gets $1,500 a year non-accountable. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know exactly what we spent on the report, but the preparation of the report and a lot of related and subsequent research that was done on that report cost the government, I believe, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $700,000. But that included more than just preparing the report itself. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, it would either be in Hal Gerein or Hal Gerein and Associates or a company that he has under some name, I'm not sure. Thank you.