Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to publicly thank the Minister of Public Works and Services for his visit to Fort Smith, on September 7 of this year. Mr. Speaker, I invited the Minister to my constituency, to meet with all the business people in the community.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the new academic building to be built in Fort Smith. This meeting gave Fort Smith businesses the opportunity to request that the Minister avoid a tender call on the project and, instead, allow the building to be constructed under project management or negotiated proposal. If this is successful, Mr. Speaker, it will be one of the first projects of its kind in Fort Smith in a long, long time.

Mr. Speaker, I know that Fort Smith residents and businesses, from time to time, have had a reputation of not being able to work together. However, I believe there are many issues which have been addressed by the community pulling together when there were concerns with our local banking. The residents worked together and found a solution very quickly. The tanker base is another example that comes to mind.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has taken the time to hear the community. I now encourage the Fort Smith businesses and the Department of Public Works to prove they can work together on this project, particularly to complete it successfully, and within the budget forecasted. Mr. Speaker, this is one initiative of a negotiated contract which not only I support, but one which my constituents support.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the Minister of DPW for taking the responsibility of addressing the political concerns of attempting to find a method to ensure our jobs and our funds expended in our economy, stay within our economy. Thank you.