Thank you. Mr. Picco, on page 67 of this contract report for the third quarter fiscal year March 31, 1996, the amount is $6,918.90. In the settlement of Rae Edzo, it is lab equipment. It is a purchase order, number 443769 out of Borite Chemicals Corporation. My understanding reading this document, that would not have been a public tender, it would have been a call for lab equipment and they would have made a local purchase through purchase order because the P.O. is in front of it. Thank you.

Oral questions, supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it demonstrates that what Mr. Morin had earlier said in the House in public record that this book available for $9.00 anyone could find out if it was a negotiated or a sole-source contract. It took four ministers to figure that question out.

My supplementary question then to the Minister is and the Premier, is when will they publish....

Mr. Picco. We have a point of order. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable member, I noticed he put his glasses on, that is good because he is asking me the questions. I am answering the questions. So the point of order, Mr. Speaker, is he leads the House to believe that it took four ministers to answer the question. It is only myself standing here to answer the question.

Again, to remind the members not to make trivial vague frivolous statements. The minister does not have a point of order. I would ask the member to use a better choice of words in his questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, just for a point of clarification, did you want me to ask the question again? Yes okay. Mr. Speaker, my question for the Premier of the Northwest Territories is this book that he has a copy of, how can the general public tell what is a sole-source and negotiated contract out of this book?

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This information is available to the general public for the price of $9.00. The member raised this issue in the House I had committed to him at that time to take a look at it and I said at that time all the contracts are in here. All the general public have to do is purchase this book and they will have a list of all the contracts and if they have any concern on any given contract they can contact the contracting department and find out. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not standing up here again for vendettas or witch hunts and I do not want to try to get one person or another, I am asking for a disclosure. I am asking that this book, that the minister kept telling me could tell me what was negotiated or sole-sourced,

so people would pay 9 bucks. I think we just demonstrated that you cannot tell by looking at it, so the people have to phone the department of this and the department of that. I will add, Mr. Speaker, if you just bear with me, because I think I should be given the opportunity here to bring this point forward, how many times do I have to ask these questions for public money spent for the public good? So, I will not go any further than to ask the Premier my supplementary question, which is, when will that book specifically identify what are negotiated, what are sole sourced and what are publicly tendered in the contract report of the first quarter of the fiscal year for 1996/97. I just cannot take it any more Mr. Speaker... when, when, when.

-- Laughter

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the member for the excellent question. A very clear question, and, as I said previously in this House, this book is available to the general public for $9. The Member raised a very good concern saying that the general public could not go through this book and say, this contract here has been negotiated, this one has been sole-sourced.

I raised the issue in the House previously, Mr. Speaker, that there was an issue with the Department of Justice on us doing that, I have requested the Department of Justice to find a way that we can do that so we can respond to the motion that was made in this Legislative Assembly by Mr. Ootes and Mr. Picco. The motion was very clear, that we are looking at a way that we can list sole-source contracts and negotiated contracts, as well, as list, for public information, the wages of all our employees.

We are going to do those two things because that is the wish of the House. So, we can make all of the employees who work for the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have committed that anybody making over $60,000, their wage will be public. Mr. Todd is going to deal with the union on that issue and that may take some time. I am dealing with Justice to try to get this stuff done, and, hopefully, we will get it done before the next book comes out. We will try it, I made a commitment to members of this House and we are trying to get it done.

Thank you. Oral questions, is this your final supplementary? I will check with the Clerk here. When you have a supplementary, part of that is also part of the supplementary. If a member asks a question clearly and has not got a response clearly and he asks for clarification, that is still a supplementary. Oral questions, Mr. Steen.

Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Todd.

Well, first of all, thank you, Mr. Speaker, let me apologize to Mr. Steen and to his constituents. I concur with him that there has been a great deal of confusion as it relates to who is selling the staff housing and, if I may say publicly, I am very appreciative of the president of the NWTTA who has assisted us in the process.

The staff housing, we did, if I can step back a little bit, we did make a provision to extend the deadline for staff housing to, I believe, the end of December. There was some confusion as to who or how or what should sell the houses. We have sold, my understanding is somewhere around 70 percent of the housing units, particularly the individual ones, and we are fairly confident, despite a few of the glitches that you may have heard about over the last umpteen months, we are fairly confident that most employees will take advantage of this one-time excellent opportunity to purchase a home, particularly when mortgages are at an all time low since 1955, I believe.

The process we now have in place is, we have asked those who do it best, and it appears that we have not, and that is we have asked the private sector and real estate companies to move quickly to pick up the phone, talk to the individuals on an individual basis, get an offer, sign the deal, get it sold. Thank you.

Oral questions, supplementary, Mr. Steen.

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Steen has caught me again. I guess it would be difficult to talk to the tenants if there are no tenants in the units. Where we have empty units and where tenants decide by the end of December, I have to wait until the end of December, that they do not wish to purchase their units, we will then sell those units to the communities. There will be some conditions attached to it, because we want to ensure that our employees whether they be butchers, bakers or candlestick makers, have some secure, affordable housing.

So, it is our intention to go out at the community level to sell those units, and it could be to a variety of operations. It could be, as we have had discussions with the Gwich'in, in Mr. Krutko's riding, it could be the hamlet council in Mr. Ningark's riding, it could be a variety of individuals in your riding. So, right now I have to wait until the end of December to determine how many houses are left over which will include the empty ones plus the ones the tenants have not purchased. Then we will set up a process to ensure that your community has adequate opportunity to purchase those units. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions, supplementary, Mr. Steen.

Mr. Todd.