Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, of course, the financial end of a contract, the end result of a good product, those things are all considered as we do an evaluation after the project is completed. Mr. Speaker, we have to point out that sole sourcing, of course, is only used in the situations that I outlined in the previous questions. So those are what we utilize as a guide and the end result is usually what determines whether the best practices were used in the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess there are three considerations that would be utilized for a sole-source contract to be awarded. First of all, the goods, the service or the construction have to be urgently required and the delay would be not in the public’s interest. We would also consider if there was only one party available that is able and capable of performing the contract. If it’s a contract with a consulting service or a company, that it will not exceed $25,000 in value, and if there are other types of contracts, of course, but that’s the basic criteria we use for sole...

Mr. Chairman, the planning study is estimated to take around four months to complete, and we are going to be looking at incorporating this project in the capital acquisition plan for this year, 2010. The planning study needs to be done by the end of June. There is some sense of urgency. Many of our leases, up to 70 percent of our leases are coming up for renewal. Present market rates and the conditions indicate that the rising lease prices are likely to stay very high and, therefore, we’re going to see significant increased costs associated with renewals. The study that was done, the lease...

Yes, we could commit to that. That’s always our intention, is whenever the ability and the time allows for public tendering of any types of contracts, that we use that method and that’s something we’ll certainly commit to doing.

Mr. Speaker, we can certainly commit to having our own Public Works staff to notify the different levels of local government in the community. Any public notification and how the salvation program itself would be operated I’m assuming would come from the contractor that has the contract and would determine what the safest way to distribute materials and salvage and dismantle this building would take place. So we can provide notice to the Member as we notify the community governments. The rest would have to be up to the responsibility of the contractor. Thank you.

Once again, yes, we want to have a program in place that will allow the community to have some benefit from the materials that are available through salvage and recycling. We certainly need to ensure that there is a safety component incorporated in this process. Direct access is probably not something we want to see. We’ll have a controlled area where salvage material will be dropped off so that people can come and pick through it or take what they’d like. The scope of work is already being determined. We’ll have all the different components required prior to going out to tender this summer...

Mr. Speaker, this is a management tool, as I indicated before, and each department has their responsibilities that lie within the contracting policies, and they have all read the terms and are all up to date on the practices of this government. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, of course, Public Works is responsible for the contracts awarded within the ranks of Public Works, and sole sourcing is one method that we use, it’s a management tool. There are criteria that sets out when it can be utilized and that’s what we follow. Thank you.

I certainly can commit to working with the Premier to see what options there are and what involvement the federal government could be requested to assist us with in this situation.

Mr. Speaker, the indications that we had from the federal government was that either this project to have to move forward as a P3, because the project had started already prior to the P3 program becoming active and having the board set up, we didn’t qualify. We had been also asked to be considering using the Building Canada funding for the bridge if we thought that his was a high enough priority. At the time it was decided that there were many other projects that could utilize the Building Canada funds, therefore, that’s where we would invest, as the bridge project already had financing...