Thank you. Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, we do have experienced managers there in the arts and crafts area and also in the food and retail area. Yes, they have quite considerable experience in that regard.

Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Education. Mr. Speaker, I have asked over the time of our session with respect to a tender bid, or a tender call, regarding Arctic College catering food services contract On May 25, there was a notice for an invitation to tender. The Minister of Education has stated in this House, on June 20, that this tender was not considered a tender once it was opened. It was considered a proposal call. However, the Minister of Finance has, to date, told me that the contract with tenders, the exact requirement for contracts is to be known and specified to interested parties, and the contract is awarded to the party that has tendered the lowest bid, As the lowest bid is the single deciding factor, the value of each bid is announced at the time of the public bid opening.

I would like to ask the Minister of Education why the tender procedures were not used when opening the bid for tender call regarding the cafeteria food services at Arctic College. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in this House, on the advice of the experts, the people who deal with the contract openings and awards in the Department of Government Services, the college was advised, because of the criteria set out in the tender, that this should be treated as a proposal. Ever since the Member has questioned me on this topic, I have directed the college that this should be treated as a tender, as it was advertised. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Speaker, can I ask the Minister of Education if he is indicating to this House that the proper policy procedures and the procedures in respect to the Financial Administration Act were not followed through in this particular tender call?

Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps the Minister of Finance could answer that question.

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, as I understand it,

there were four bids received in this regard. The bids were duly opened. At the time that they were opened by the person opening them, an error was made and they considered them to be a proposal call because of the way the documents looked. Consequently, the numbers were not announced at that tender opening. Because there was an error made and because you cannot change a tender call into a proposal call or vice versa, there was a meeting between Justice, Government Services, Finance and Arctic College. It was decided that the only error was one of omission in announcing the numbers at that particular tender opening. So each of the tenderers was advised of the numbers, and there was a selection made from one of those tenderers. So it did not change from a tender call into a proposal call, although we freely admit that an error was made at tender opening when the numbers were not announced.

Supplementary, Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the honesty in respect to addressing this issue because there has been a problem in regard to it. Can I get assurance from the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Government Services, and from the Government Leader that, in future, any invitation to tender by this government will not be changed and considered as proposal calls after the bids have been opened?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, that assurance is given. I might point out that the same kind of problem was experienced with Arctic College in the Baffin. At that time, and this was after the Fort Smith issue, because the tenders had not been opened, the tender was quashed and it will be going out to tender again. So there was another error that was stopped, and everybody will be treated fairly. But the Member has our commitment that there will be no flip-flopping back and forth between proposal and tender calls and vice versa.

Oral questions. Mr. Pudlat.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. In Lake Harbour, our water reservoir has been a problem for quite a long time. There has been some plans to improve the reservoir. In the springtime it gets hard to got water from It because it gets muddy. Does the Minister have any plans for the improvement of the water reservoir or upgrading of the pipes to the deep end of the lake?

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, I will take the question as notice.

The question is taken as notice. Mr. Gargan.

Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, over the years we have developed many policies on freezer allocation to communities and who is going to be responsible. Another policy has been developed; however, we are trying to work It into the budget because there is a cost implication to that. So the Department of Renewable Resources is looking at the policy that has come forward at this time and to see how that can be worked into the budget for this fall. Presently, the Department of Public Works has a budget for $936,000 per year and $19,500 per community freezer. This is for the operation and maintenance of the community freezers that presently exist.

As part of reassessing the community freezer program, other ways of using this money will be, for example, turning over to the hunters' and trappers' associations, band councils, or the appropriate agencies to maintain community freezers, or It could be used to purchase chest-type freezers or discontinue the use of large-scale community freezers.

So because of the cost implications, the last policy proposal that was put forward had quite extensive cost implications. So we are trying to work it into other alternatives and what people can handle within a budget. So yes, we are developing it. A policy was developed and the cost implications are being examined to see if we can deliver It to communities. From time to time, particularly in small communities, it may be appropriate, for example, rather than building a community freezer, to allow the community to have a certain amount of funds so that each individual can purchase a very large chest-type freezer. These are the cost implications that we are struggling with right now. Yes, it is an active file and we would like to see it through, but with what we came up with the last time, there were a lot of cost implications as a community freezer.