Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Honourable Minister is concerned, but I understand that over the last

couple of days the Baffin Regional Health Board has tried to arrange a meeting between the Minister and myself, and we have not been able to get a meeting of the minds on that. So maybe the Minister could tell me when he would be available, so that the Inuvik Hospital Board and the Baffin Hospital Board, the chair and both MLA's have an opportunity to meet with him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, they tried to notify me two days ago, a day and a half ago, to try to set up a meeting for the next morning. I said I was not available at that time. They tried to set it up for two days after that. I was not available at that time because of commitments in this House, in this Assembly, commitments to carry on being the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Justice.

So I advised them that I will try to participate in a meeting to update them on what is happening at the earliest opportunity when things begin to slow down, after the Legislature is not sitting, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Mr. Speaker, I think we are all aware of the time constraints on the Minister, and he does have two portfolios. I was not trying to say he was trying to avoid the issue. All I am saying is that it is a volunteer board that you are talking about here. The chairman of our board is not being paid, and that person has to leave a position to attend any type of meeting or conference call.

So it is a very important issue and my question would be to the Minister when at the end of the session would he think would be a suitable time, so I could inform the hospital board so that person can get time off to do the meeting? Do you think it would be the 20th of October, or maybe would the Minister commit to meeting with myself, and maybe Mr. Roland could arrange a time that is conducive with his busy schedule?

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member is correct that there are other individuals out there who have to dedicate their time, including the MLA's. I am not saying that my time is the only time that should be taken into consideration here. There are other Members who are involved and certainly we would have to coordinate that to have all the appropriate people available to facilitate this type of meeting.

So, like I said before, Mr. Speaker, when a time is satisfactory to all parties that would want to participate then we will have that meeting, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contracts are listed in the amounts and who got the contract, and the location, and a brief description as well as the settlement. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Morin.

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.

Thank you. Oral question. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree with the Member. If we can do that, I just read out what Justice has said we can do. We can check it again, and if we can do that, I do not have a problem doing that. All I am saying is that this is the process that we have in place now. The information is there; it may take an extra phone call by somebody to get extra information, but that information is there.

We are not hiding anything, it is straightforward. But, you know, in the spirit of this overwhelming motion that we do have in front of us, we will look at it and we will also get an opinion from Justice and FMBS on this whole thing about making public the wages of civil servants and everybody else. We are working on that as well, so hopefully we will be able to address the Members' concerns and get that done as well. Thank you.