Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Public Works. It is in regard to a tender that was let go in my riding, in Aklavik, for a warehouse for the Department of RWED. The contract which was originally called was given to a joint venture company, Tetlit'zheh Construction Ltd. and the Inuvialuit Project Corporation. They won the bid, but apparently the bid was over budget. The company, along with the Department of Public Works, made an attempt to negotiate and look at the possibility of revising the amount of the budget. At that point they were almost there with a $3,500 difference. At that point, the department went back to the Department of RWED and rejected it on the basis of the $3,500.

I would like to ask the Minister regarding the attempt that was made by this company, which was successful in the original bid and made the attempt to sit down with the government and the Department of Public Works, to try working out an acceptable amount by bringing their price down to a level where they felt was reasonable. Three thousand five hundred dollars is not a lot of money, yet we talk about a surplus in this government, we talk about big projects, we talk about doing multi-million dollar studies. I find it very unacceptable that we make an attempt in good faith with a contractor to sit down with them and try to work out the arrangements, yet at the end of the day, they are rejected on the basis of a small amount of money.

Is there any way that these companies can be compensated for the time and effort that they put in when they sit down with this government, especially the Department of Public Works, to try to resolve an issue and at the end of the day they are left out in the cold with no contract in hand and basically their bid does not mean anything on the market because their price is of public knowledge because it was a public process? I would like to ask the Minister, is there a way that these companies can be compensated for efforts that they put forth in good faith trying to resolve issues with this government, at the end of the day being turned down totally and losing out on a contract for $3,500?