Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation awards fixed-price contracts containing a specific scope of work to be performed for the construction of winter roads for resupply to northern communities. This was an unusual year this past year in terms of weather and conditions for winter and ice road construction. These are circumstances beyond the control of the Minister or the contractor. A bad year such as this past season makes the work of contractors potentially very costly and difficult.

The contractor has the option of ending the contract and pulling their equipment and people off the job, however, Mr. Speaker, everyone on the job, both from the department and from the contractor's forces, is keenly aware of the importance of making the roads available for resupply and the alternatives are not pleasant. Sometimes different equipment is required and sometimes more equipment is required, and sometimes more manpower is required. The contractor wants to get the job done and the window of opportunity can be very limited. There isn’t time to go back and undertake a lengthy process to get written authorities and approvals to revise the scope of the contract, so people do what they need to do to get the job done. The freight gets into the communities and the story should have a happy ending.

The story isn’t too happy, though, Mr. Speaker, for the contractor who proceeded in good faith out of a sense of responsibility and commitment to getting the job done. He’s invested in additional equipment, his equipment has taken an extraordinary beating due to a lack of snow and ice, and the government is saved their expense of having to fly essential fuel and supplies into the community. But the contractor sits with a major loss.

Mr. Speaker, the weather and winter conditions for contracts such as these are not in the control of anyone. In other contracts, where we know that the possibility of forces beyond our control exist -- such as forest management fire suppression -- this government has the ability to appropriate funds in addition to those originally committed and contracted. There is a contingency plan for a particularly dry summer with an unusual amount of fire activity. So why not for contracts like winter road construction?

I wouldn’t be happy if the GNWT was going to go back and open up and renegotiate contracts for the supply of goods and services after the conclusion of a competitive process, but I think we need to recognize the unpredictable nature of some contracts given the extenuating circumstances outside of the contractor’s control, such as Mother Nature. Any extra compensation would need to be carefully considered and documented, but I don’t think it should be ruled out. Any contractor who was awarded the work would have been faced with the same challenges.

Mr. Speaker, later today I’ll have questions for the Minister of Transportation regarding his department’s policy in dealing with these unique contracts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause