It was anticipated that the cost of developing the strategies could be as high as $500,000. This not only included costs associated with the RFP but costs associated with releasing the consultants' reports to the public to generate discussion and public input.
The budget identified for this work does not appear as a line item in estimates approved by this House. A decision was made to fund the project internally, if possible and, if not, return to the House with supplementary estimates.
A further return to oral question with respect to contract to develop the GNWT economic strategies asked by Mrs. Groenewegen.