Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that suggestion and I wish it was as simple as that. This contract report, we started this a few years back to let the public in general know how the government spends its contract dollars. We followed that up with a commitment from the previous cinance committee to let them know specifically on negotiated contracts and sole source contracts.
It was an issue to Members, and we do not have any problem sharing that information with Members of this Legislative Assembly. The problem I have is that the Department of Justice has advised that there may be some concern. That should be considered in determining whether to table information on negotiated contracts.
The issue raised is as follows. Breach of contract; some contracts may contain confidential provisions. Care must be taken by the government to review each individual contract prior to release to ensure that there is no basis for a grain of breech of confidentiality.
Civil liability, a new area of law, is developing which allows for the recovery of economic losses separately from a breach of contract. In such cases, if a party can demonstrate economic loss as a result of a breach of contract, the party committing the act may be liable for economic losses suffered by the third party. Although the potential for such an action is remote, there is a risk of a contractor pursuing such a suit.
Access to information. The Access of Information Act comes into force on December 31, 1996. The act prohibits the release of information that would be an unreasonable invasion of privacy or would detrimentally affect the business interests of a third party. Although the act does not prohibit the disclosure of contract information, it does state that the GNWT shall refuse to release information which could be expected to result in undue financial loss or gain to any person, prejudice the competitive position of a third party, or interfere with contractual or other negotiations of a third party.
There may be a risk of being in contravention of these provisions as the result of a release of negotiated contract information, and Mr. Speaker, I would just like to make sure that all Members are fully aware of where we are coming from as a government.
I do not have a problem releasing information to the Standing Committee on Government Operations. I do not have a problem releasing information to specific Members on a confidential .. marking the letter confidential so it is not shared with the press and the public. The press and public in general have this book right here that they can use, and they can buy that for nine dollars, Mr. Speaker.
If they have any issue in here, any contract, there are 24 capable Members in this House that represent the public that they can go to and ask -- I have an issue with this contract on this page, tell me about it -- and the Member can get their constituent that information. So, it is an open process and just so the Members understand that we are trying to, I guess, meet the spirit of the motion the best way we can. Thank you.