Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are two issues and I tried to address that yesterday or the day before. One is the transitional incremental costs associated with Nunavut; that is the money that is required over and above the current gross expenditure base that we have within this government; and that is the $150 million or $117 million, depending on how you want to define it. We are currently working that through, as I said to my colleague earlier. What is of equal importance and one that we have almost addressed is the process in which we are going to determine an appropriate plan of action as it relates to determining two gross expenditure bases for the operations and maintenance costs of the new governments. So they work in harmony with each other. I am hoping that over this weekend, I will get some direction and support on some of these hard and difficult questions from the Minister and some support from our colleagues and a process in which to work these important, long-term financial needs out. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Enuaraq.

The Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, the policy comes into effect immediately. Implementation will happen as practical. The section on negotiated contracts will be implemented immediately and next week, the first advertisements for the particular negotiated contract I mentioned will happen. Interim measures for minimal levels of Inuit participation will be implemented immediately for this summer with the formal policy being established by September.

Supplementary, Mr. Enuaraq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister tell this House what the real benefits are for Inuit that the GNWT expects to achieve through this policy on article 24?

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, the basic goals are for increased participation of Inuit in business opportunities in the Nunavut region. We want to improve the capacity of Inuit firms to be able to bid for and let government contracts and to increase the employment of Inuit beneficiaries in Nunavut at a representative level. So in short, those are the benefits that we want to see.

Thank you. I would like to recognize a member from the community of Enterprise, Mr. Karl Mueller. Welcome to the Assembly.

--- Applause

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier or for the Minister of Transportation. On May 2, 1996, the mayor of Rae-Edzo and Grand Chief Joe Rabesca wrote a letter to you concerning a tender call made by the Department of Transportation, which was by invitation only for quality assurance work and Highway #3 on kilometre 165 to 175. As you may be aware, Rae-Edzo does have an active engineering company that is locally owned and operated for that active Dogrib ownership. This company strives to train local people in various aspects of the engineering field. However, due to a reluctance of the Department of Transportation in recognizing this company, they cannot get work in order to train our local people. It is imperative that our people receive training and education in the field of engineering.

Today I spoke to the owners of this company and their main concern is to be able to bid on various contracts that become available. There is no reason why they cannot. My question is, why has the Department of Transportation felt it was necessary not to include this company in the bidding process for this particular job, considering the high component of training that would take place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the company the honourable Member is referring to is ABT Engineering. It is a new engineering consulting company. There are about 10 engineering consulting companies in and around Yellowknife that the department uses. This particular concern is with regard to a proposal that was put out by the Department of Transportation for quality assurance on Highway #3, which is kilometre 165 to 175. That is the section between the communities of Fort Providence and Rae-Edzo.

According to the department, the government has a policy which they use for utilizing architectural and engineering consultants. It is called the selection of architectural and engineering services policy, which is a directive of the BIP. This is what the departnment follows. Of the 10 firms, according to this policy, three firms are asked at a time. In a previous contract, ABT Engineering was included as one of the three for an adjacent piece of work. Unfortuantely, BT was not successful. Other people had better proposals, so they weren't selected. This time around, another three firms were invited to put a bid in. This is how the department does its work in acquiring services of engineering consultants. It isn't the intention of the department to be reluctant in accepting an engineering firm. It is just the way the department has been doing business. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Rabesca.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is disappointing that you are only representing half of the people in the constituency. The closing date for the tenders is scheduled for some time this afternoon. I was hoping to ask the Minister whether he would be able to delay opening the tenders, so we will be able to have the company in question submit their bid, along with the three that you have selected so far.

I would further like to say northern preference should be included and the business incentive policy and the affirmative action policy should be practised to their fullest extent. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the concern of the honourable Member. Unfortunately, this concern came to my attention right around noon and the letter was written last Thursday from the leaders of the community to try to intervene. The proposal closes in five minutes. I am going to have to respond to the honourable Member in his request that I delay the tender schedule. I will not do that. I will let the tender go ahead. It is a proposal call. The bid is not public. There are three companies involved and they have done this according to the rules. I would like to keep that in place.

Like I said, there is the selection of architectural and engineering services policy that the department is following. I understand that ABT Engineering is aware of this policy. It is the practice of the Department of Transportation to follow this policy. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Rabesca.

Mr. Speaker, like I said earlier on, I would like to say that I wouldn't like to see this type of response coming from the Minister to happen in the future. If the practice of northern preference or the business incentive policy is not being followed by the Minister, I wonder if he would be able to consider retendering the contract so that any company that operates within the Territories will not have to go through the same practice that we have experienced this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That was your final supplementary, Mr. Rabesca. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like I said earlier, this issue came to my attention just about an hour before session started. So there is very little time to sit down with anyone who is involved in this company. Normally, if a company like that is concerned, they could contact me and we will discuss it at a time when we aren't under time pressure. There are other contracts that will be let out in that area. The honourable Member is requesting that this particular firm out of Rae-Edzo get preferential treatment in that area. You are going to have to consider that with the fact that there are another 10 firms out there. Depending on the composition, we are going to have to discuss this further in light of your request. It is a serious concern for the Member and for myself. Unfortunately, we can't really deal with it at this point. I would suggest that we get together with the people he represents, the department and look at this concern and see if we can resolve it for future work that may be coming up. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Krutko.