Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in 1987, when I ran as a Member for the Legislative Assembly for Tu Nedhe, the majority of the work done in my communities were done by either companies from Yellowknife or from southern Canada. At that time, I can remember quite clearly that there was one construction job alone worth well over $1 million and my community benefited less than one percent. That was an open tender process. As a matter of fact, my community benefited so little that the contractor was able to pay the labourers in cash every Friday. That is how little benefit my community got from the dollar spent on their behalf in my community. That was a contractor out of Yellowknife. Also in my community, when the housing contracts came out to tender, sure enough, once again, another contractor came in, it was another contractor from another community, they were to build 14 houses, I think they hired six or seven labourers in the community and all the money went out of our community.

When I ran as MLA for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Speaker, I ran with the full intention of closing the gap that I represented in that community of 500 to 600 people. The money that this government spends in our communities has to stay in our communities. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that today, all the contracts in my communities stay in the communities, they do do joint ventures, they do bring in some project management, they bring in expertise to build them on budget, to build them on time, but they do do them in the community and the benefits stay in the community. How did that happen? This government, three terms ago, changed the policy. They changed the policy to allow for negotiated contracts in our communities to assist our people to get into that sector, so that we in the small communities can benefit from the dollar spent in our communities. We are benefiting from those dollars and I encourage the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Ministers to continue to negotiate contracts in the small communities, continue to work with the communities. They are the ones who have to benefit. Our unemployment rates are high in our communities. Our economic futures are not great, but we can do good, we are doing good. As long as we have negotiated contracts. Thank you.

--Applause