Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a subject of much discussion in this Legislature has been the way in which this government contracts for the supply of goods and services. Everything from the reporting of an awarded contract to the method by which contracts are awarded has been spoken to. On a positive note, I believe that progress and improvement has been made in some policy areas regarding government purchasing. The quarterly report of contracts awarded was revised to indicate not only the company and the amount of the contract, but whether the contract had been tendered, sole-sourced, or negotiated, and I understand this may now even be taken one step further and be available through an access through a Web page. Now Mr. Speaker, there is now a Web page displaying a registry of northern companies who are eligible under the business incentive policy. There are however, still gaps in the way in which the contracts and the needs for goods and services are made public. It has come to my attention again lately, that northern companies are still not always aware of potential business, government business, which is out there.
There is also the issue where departments contracting for capital projects do not seem to be aware of government directives in the area of northern manufacturing. I have provided a written question to the Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, to get a break down of how much capital project delivery is now done directly by client departments as opposed to the situation previously, where the Department of Public Works and Services was the primary overseer of these projects. As I said, I believe much progress has been made in the involvement of northern companies in supplying our government, but it is a situation we have to stay ahead of. Government departments and community governments performing the task of delivering projects, programs and services on behalf of GNWT need to be kept aware of what is available from northern contractors, suppliers and manufacturers and what this government's policies are regarding business incentive initiatives. Mr. Henry suggested last week that we need to go on a trade mission to Nunavut. This is probably not a bad idea, but I also think we need to constantly keep in the forefront the benefits of job creation and economic growth that we can create through our government's financial resources being used to buy north. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause