Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the mid-term review four months ago in October, some of these following commitments were made. Minister Todd made a commitment to look at the option of using RFPs and analyzing it. There were some other commitments on RFP disclosures that were made at that time. I am wondering if the Premier or Minister Todd could update the House on those commitments? For example, Mr. Todd committed he would coordinate with the Premier and the Minister of Public Works to re-examine the request for proposal policies to provide the transparency and clarity that the Ordinary Members requested. Would the Premier or the Finance Minister update us on that commitment? Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are doing that, and we are working with the NWT construction industry, as well as the industry to work out a protocol or an agreement to how we can accomplish that. The problem is, with the request for proposals, of how to do that without jeopardizing some business interests or let the people know what the financial aspects of that business are. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have a policy called the request for proposal policy. Is it possible that the Premier could table that in the House for public disposal purposes? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I have the Member repeat his question? I did not quite catch him. Thank you.

Mr. Picco, second supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have ascertained that indeed the government has a policy for request for proposals. Is it possible to have that policy tabled in the House?

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have contractual procedures that we use for tender proposals, requests for proposals, public advertisement, invitational tenders and requests for proposals and how they are evaluated. I would be pleased to table it. It was sent to all Members but I can table it as well. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under our regulations, we do have a tendering contract under the Tendering Act. We do have policies and guidelines that have been tabled in this House before. Under the request for proposals, there seems to be a loose hodge podge of different requirements. I am wondering if that is what the Premier is looking at. Is he looking at bringing all of these things all under one envelope instead of tabling five on a piece of paper for each department to follow? Is that what the Premier is looking at? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is not hodge podge or loose. It is a very structured request for proposals and there is nothing loose about it. The proposal for us to use is when the government knows what it wants done but not how to go about doing it. It is looking for the best value solution to resolve the problem or deliver a better service. A request for proposal contains three main elements, instruction to the proposers, terms of reference and evaluation criteria. It is very, very clear. Nothing is loose in the proposal call method. That is what I am willing to table in this House, how requests for proposals are done, how they are evaluated and who does it. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Minister Todd has stated earlier that the Premier and the government are looking at concerns about requests for proposals and will be providing an answer as soon as possible. That was four months ago. There were concerns raised at that time and then again we raised them in the House, sitting in November and raised them again in February. I would like to know when are we going to have these concerns answered other than read something?

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have already told the Member that we are working on this issue with the construction industry so that all issues and concerns that need to be addressed through the request for proposals can hopefully be addressed. The government is concerned as well of making sure that businesses are treated properly through this request for proposal so transparency is there and how it is happening. It is very important that we get this work done before we move on, if we are going to move on with the P3, but this work has to be done prior to that. Hopefully, it will be done fairly soon, but we are working with other people on this issue as well, like the construction industry.

Oral questions. Mr. Barnabas.

The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Thompson.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my response to the Member for the High Arctic, I will look into this and direct my staff in the Iqaluit regional office to look into this matter as soon as possible in regard to the fencing in of the water reservoir he mentions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)