Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, I would be only too happy to try to organize a meeting before the end of November. Thank you.

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

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, the easy answer would be no, but then my honourable colleague would say I am not cooperating. What I will do is I will look into it. It depends on how many people have to come to the meeting and what it is going to cost given these tight fiscal times? I will have to see if my budget can afford it. I cannot really make any public commitment. What I will make is a commitment to meet, to organize the meeting and to work in a spirit of cooperation with Internet and the Ardicom in our department. But it would be a little unfair, as I am sure my honourable colleague, for me, to commit today, not knowing what the actual costs would be. But I will certainly look into it. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Roland.

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

Well, Mr. Speaker. Of course, my door is open all of the time to my colleagues, the UNW, the NWTTA, the private sector, rich people and poor people. So, it is open all the time. That offer still stands. This issue of Donny Days was part of the negotiations with the UNW. It is my understanding that there is satisfaction with it. But if my honourable colleague feels that perhaps some Members of his constituency are not satisfied with it, I would ask my department to talk to the UNW and try to resolve the concern that some of his constituents may have. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You have to have some coordinated approach to these Donny Days. You cannot have everybody taking them at different times. That is why we negotiated the days with the union. As I made an announcement earlier, yesterday I believe, we have given the union notice that we would like to sit down and bargain. I would suggest to my colleague and any of my other colleagues who are having problems with this issue, should advise their union representatives to put that on the table when we get to the normal bargaining process. This arrangement was bargained that we now have. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, if my memory serves me correctly I understand there was a democratic vote on the collective agreement in which the majority of members voted to accept it. You can say shame all you want. Are you suggesting that this is not a democratic process? Mr. Speaker. My apologies. What was the question? Yes, no, the answer is no. We would not be prepared at this late juncture to re-examine that. I do not believe we are closing the door. What I am saying is we are late into the process. We are in October now and Santa Claus will be coming soon, and jingle bells and all that stuff. It is a little late at this time to perhaps consider that. What I am saying to my colleague is we are back at bargaining with the UNW on wages and benefits, et cetera. I would suggest, in all seriousness to him, despite the cat calls from his colleague from Iqaluit, that the bargaining process is the appropriate place to put this issue on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Steen.

Thank you. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine. Two questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the Department of Transportation we have a number of major projects that we have approved every year in our budget. Some of these contracts we handle ourselves, mainly the highway contracts. But the other contracts like the airport terminal building is handled by the Department of Public Works and Services and their tendering processes. But in the highway construction portion of the department, we do not have that many contracts that were issued last year. On the major part of it, we just had two. The amount of northern employment which we are trying to aim for is as high a northern employment content, as possible. We aim for about 95 percent for northern employment on all future highway construction and operation contracts. This department is attempting to implement certain measures to try to reach that goal.

Just for statistics, Mr. Speaker, this past year we had two contracts on a major section and the northern content for that one had 62 percent northern content. The other one was 51 percent northern content. However, it is not that high of a content, but we try everything we can to aim for as high a northern content, and on an ongoing basis, we could commit to providing regular reports to the Member and to this House as we move along in trying to achieve our objectives of 95 percent northern employment on all future highway construction operations. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Steen.