Mr. Chairman, I was not intending to speak to the motion. Rather, I waited patiently for the report to be completed on the part of the chairman, and I was hoping that after the chairman has concluded his comments, we would be given an opportunity to see if there was anybody else who wanted to make some comments on the report, which I wanted to do, if you would allow me, Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mine is a very quick one. I went through this report with interest. However, about a year ago, I made a presentation on the fact that there was no consideration for small-time construction contractors in the small communities who cannot readily afford to get compensation under the summary of other concerns, in the middle of where Mr. Lewis was reading. He stated that for employers in the building construction sub-class the current rate is ten to 25 per $100 wages. If you are a very small contractor, the construction of one unit costing $120,000, that is already over $1,200 they would have to put up- front to the Workers' Compensation Board.

With our business incentive program, which is the government's program, we have been trying to encourage the small-time construction operators or contractors to, for example, if you have six houses to build in Coral Harbour, then you would encourage small businesses to take on one or two if he cannot afford to take on all six of them. However, even at that, that is only $248,000 and the Workers' Compensation Board expects that person to up-front $2,480 before the contract has been awarded. Whereas, a bigger company can afford that because they have already made arrangements with the banks to get interim loans to pay their wages before they can be paid from the government who is giving them a contract. I was quite surprised to see that there was no sense of recommendation in helping out, or at least encouraging, the government's incentive program that it would become a reality rather than just saying the government has a 15 per cent incentive program, but help them in the other way around.

In the eastern Arctic, especially, the construction season is very short. Some small-time contractors make a little mistake in sending their application to the Workers' Compensation Board in Yellowknife. By the time it comes back, it is a couple of weeks and they are simply told they forgot to put the contract number down from the government. If you called the government, they would say, I'm sorry, we cannot give you a contract number or give you issuance of the contract until you receive your deposit from the Workers' Compensation Board. They are getting into a catch-22 situation right off the bat.

There are more things I could say about this one because, coming from a small community, I know all of these small contractors who are encouraged to become bigger by taking on the government incentive. But, under this program, they cannot really afford it. I was hoping that the Standing Committee on Legislation would have made a recommendation instructing, or at least requesting, the government that this kind of a hassle be eliminated by using a different approach to giving out contracts. We're causing a hindrance to small contractors, but not to the big contractors. Qujannamiik.

Mr. Chairman, the government also notes the comments and we'll undertake to look at that situation to see if there is anything that can be done to resolve it. I thank the Member for bringing it forth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

To deal with the report of the committee review of DeLury and Associates Limited contracts, Committee Report 7-12(4).

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When the chairman of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts was here a few weeks ago he read the report into the record. So, at this stage, we would like to deal with the committee recommendations. So, if I may continue, Mr. Chairman?

Agreed.

---Agreed

I move that this committee recommends that the Financial Management Board Secretariat formalize the process by which the contract listing is produced in order to ensure that accurate information is conveyed to the Legislative Assembly and the public in a timely fashion.

Question.

Question.

Mr. Chairman, I just want clarification. Who would be responsible for this? Would it be the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs?