Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again I am very happy to be here in the Legislative Assembly representing the constituents of Kam Lake, and I would like to, as well, welcome the newest Member, the Member for Monfwi, Mr. Jackson Lafferty. I’m glad to see that there’s some leadership from the Tlicho region here in the Legislative Assembly today and I look forward to working with Mr. Lafferty and the leadership in implementing the self-government agreement that they have in the Tlicho region.

The issue I want to highlight today is why a local construction company, who happen to be my constituents, were and are being treated unfairly by the Housing Corporation. They were the low bidder on a tender to construct two housing units in Rae. My constituents were the only respondent bidder on that tender. The work should have been awarded to them, but something happened along the way to the award being granted.

The Rae Band Construction was concerned that they did not get the work and subsequently went to the Housing Corporation to cancel the contract and negotiate with them on doing the work. The Housing Corporation even tried, Mr. Speaker, to negotiate with both parties on sharing the work and this was done in vain. The Housing Corporation cancelled that tender on September 14th and is in the process of negotiating with the Dogrib Rae Band Construction.

The last time I checked on the public tendering process here in the Northwest Territories, it stated quite clearly that a tender cannot be cancelled without just cause. I’ve been trying to find out from the Housing Corporation for the past three weeks what their definition of just cause is and I’ve not received any official response back from the Housing Corporation. The Minister would have had to have made the call on cancelling the tender and today I hope to get some answers from him.

Is there only one company in Rae that the Housing Corporation can do business with? What will this do to the Housing Corporation’s ability to construct houses in Rae? Am I to believe that there is no public tendering process in the new Tlicho region? The Minister and government must pay close attention to this situation to ensure that there is integrity and fairness when we’re applying public dollars being spent. I look forward to the Minister’s response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause