Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the last session of this House, I was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the NWT Construction Association. This was in response to my comments on sole source and negotiated contracts. Now the association represents a cross section of firms from across the Northwest Territories, small ones, large ones, engineering firms, architects, suppliers and contractors. At this meeting, 75 people were present, Mr. Speaker. After my presentation, we had a question and answer period. One of the questions I posed was how many people here are in favour of sole source and negotiated contracts and see a benefit to it? Not one hand went up, Mr. Speaker, out of 75 people there.
-- Applause
Now, the association itself has taken quite an aggressive stand in supporting public tendering systems. While I am not against sole source and negotiated contracts on a 100 percent basis, I feel that there is need for clarification of the policy. Now, since Mr. Picco's motion last year, seconded by myself, the government produced an initial report but now has produced this particular report. It is the latest one and I have to compliment the government. I do not go out of my way to compliment the government much, except yesterday and today, and this is an excellent report. It provides all the data that we have been seeking. At the back is a summary, tabulated in sole source, negotiated and tendered in columns of where they went. I think it is very, very valuable. My compliments.
However, what it does point out that while we have come a long way, we have a great many sole source and negotiated contracts and that is of concern. It is the percentage of sole source contracts that are of concern to me. We need clarification of the conditions under which those are let, and then address the concern about the quantity. We need to reduce the quantity of sole source and negotiated contracts, Mr. Speaker, because the system and volume is building resentment amongst a number of businesses in our communities. I want to watch that we do not create a system of corporate support which is available to some, but not to others. If we could address that, Mr. Speaker. And we want to ensure we have...