Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the obvious ways in the past that has been used in some communities to address the issue of alcohol addiction has been a community initiative to have, I guess, prohibition or have the community be a dry community. Out of the 33 communities in the Western Territory right now, does the Minister know how many are by choice and by referendum, dry communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information available and I would have to check with my counterparts to see how many have dedicated themselves or voted to become totally dry communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister would know, do we as a government offer any incentives or any promotion to communities pursuing this as an avenue to address prevention of alcohol addiction?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Member asking if we provide any support or funding for communities who want to become dry communities? If that is the question, then right now as a department we do not have funding available to allow communities or the process, I guess, to vote to become to dry. That is a community initiative that is voted on by their population and they require, I believe, a majority vote to declare their community is dry. Right now I am unaware and I do not believe we have any assistance through this department to go through that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be interested in knowing why this government does not have a program in place that would encourage communities to take this step and also, I would be interested in knowing what statistics are available to the department as to the effectiveness, the effective reduction of alcohol consumption in communities that do vote to be dry. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been much debate in communities that have either tried to become dry when they go to their electorate to try and cause a motion to be successful or a plebiscite to be successful in declaring their communities dry. Some would argue the fact that by making a community dry, you only increase the events of bootlegging in a community, and there are some other negative side effects to that. I could not give you a very definite answer as to why we as a government do not support that, but I think it all comes down to an individual choice. A previous Member mentioned that there are thousands of people and seeing a lot of people on the streets that are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Our programming is set up for those who would come and seek the service to try and repair the damage that has been done by the abuse that has been ongoing.

We do not openly recruit people from the streets. We know it has to be a decision of their own, and I think that would be the same for each community, a decision of the community to decide if they would like to go dry or not. I think myself personally that it would probably be a great thing, because we are as a government spending a lot of dollars, not only in the Department of Health and Social Services but in Justice and other areas, to try and deal with this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe I indicated earlier in my response to Mr. Morin that the department is still honouring and responding to the question of negotiated contracts. We still review each application on its own merits. All the reviews are based on the guidelines put forward by the Executive Council. The department does in fact respond, and my direction to the department has been to clearly indicate to the department that they will continue to respond to the question of negotiated contracts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is great to say they are going to respond, but when you continue to get the same response that there are no negotiated contracts, that has to be coming from somewhere. I would like to ask the Minister again, in the case of Inuvik region, there have been several contracts put out by Public Works, who basically use architects from Yellowknife, Calgary, the southern part of the Northwest Territories, but they will not use architects in Inuvik region. Why is that? Is that because the department or regional staff are saying there are no negotiated contracts in this region,

that we are going to import everybody in from the south? So I would like to ask the Minister again, who has taken the initiative that there be no negotiated contracts on any jobs within this department?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is getting more specific on exactly what form of negotiated contract he is talking here. I would like to remind the Member that there is a policy in place whereby an architectural contract, $25,000 or below, is not required to be tendered. It can be sole-sourced. As far as I know at this point in time, Mr. Speaker, the regional offices have been and I do not understand it at all why they would not be following the direction as set out by Cabinet. If there is in fact a specific situation here that the Member is aware of, then I suggest the Member should contact me and arrange a meeting in the office about this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly the point I wanted you to hit on, the $25,000 usage of public funds and not going through a contracting or public process. I believe that, that is being abused at the Inuvik regional office and that your department should look at it.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question was, will the Minister and his department look at the misuse of public funds at the Inuvik regional office by the Department of Public Works?