Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are in follow-up to Mr. Ootes' questions with respect to the Economic Strategy. Mr. Speaker, I think it is entirely appropriate for us to question the expenditure of public funds. I would just like to comment that it is cheap rhetoric on this side of the House to suggest that questioning the process of procurement for this contract or this service is to criticize the intent or the merit of the exercise. That is not the intent here. No one is questioning the merit of the initiative. I would also like to, Mr. Speaker, remind the Minister that he referred to this as a public tender and we have much and extensive debate in this House and tried to explain to some of the Ministers the difference between a request for proposal and a public tender. Obviously, we have not succeeded in that.
No one sets out to do something without counting the cost, so my question is, did the Minister have a cost in mind before issuing the RFP for the development of the Economic Strategies in question? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.