Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate, as do all the other Members I am sure, the workload that the Minister and his department and officials have had to carry in the last year. I would just like to point out, however, and I think that the Minister is aware of this, the energy savings is a way to save money that does not have to require job cuts or cuts to key program areas. It is basically a win/win situation. I would ask the Minister if he could just confirm more specifically his commitment. In the next year, he has indicated he would like

to start work on that kind of major policy. Will there be involvement of communities and MLAs and such in this process for this key policy? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes. I can confirm that, at least myself as a Minister, I am prepared to do work to undertake some sort of initiative which I can advance to Cabinet that would address the area that the Member is referring to. It is not that we have not done anything. What I am saying is that I need some more time to scope out the full area that I want to address. In the meantime, at the community level, just to give people some sense of what it is we are trying to do, we have studied work on helping two communities, Cape Dorset and Fort Simpson. A team is going in with these two communities to address a way that could be used to do what you would call community energy planning, to address the very points at the local level that the Member is raising. I think that we are off to a good start and I would hope that in the course of the coming fall, perhaps, we may be in a position to speak to Members about something a little more comprehensive. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Arlooktoo. I received from several companies some information. From the NWT Construction Association, a public notice from the Department of Public Works of an intent to negotiate a construction contract for the new Clyde River Community Learning Centre. I believe the value of this may be in the range of $800,000. I also understand that the construction of the Sanikiluaq air terminal was pulled off the public tender list and may be going to either a negotiated or sole-sourced contract. Again, this is a $1 million project.

Yesterday, the Minister said that these types of contracts are rare. Now these are the first of the contracts out of the chute for the coming year, Mr. Speaker. Both of them appear to be negotiated. Certainly, the one is negotiated as advertised. My question for the Minister is, is this the trend of government contracting in these tight economic times?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister confirm that is it not true that through the public tender system, we can demand the amount of local labour and amount of local content and local accommodation that will be used. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wonder if the Minister could confirm for me and he may not have the answer, if he could get the answer for me, under the federal system of tendering, could he tell me if the federal government allows negotiated or sole-sourced contracts? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.