Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The request for a negotiated contract was received by the government some time ago from the community and from the MLA. Cabinet, after reviewing the proposal, decided to support a negotiated contract. One of the conditions we have to follow in the Nunavut area is a 21-day waiting period where we advertise to the general public and to other companies that we do intend to contract through a negotiated process. During this
21-day waiting period, if another Inuit-owned company expresses any interest in getting the contract, the negotiated contract is cancelled. Then we go to the competitive process. For this particular contract in Clyde River, I had heard unofficially there had been another company that was interested. I have since checked into that and there has been no official request from any other company so far and, with a few days left to go, there is no other interest expressed. We will be negotiating with this company in the next week or so.