Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is true that there was a call for proposals earlier in the year. There was some criteria set to evaluate the proposals that were received.

A committee was set up to evaluate and recommend the best proposal. There was a difference in cost between the proposals. It is true that the proposal that was accepted does cost more. It was the view of the committee that, given the criteria and objectives set out, the Group of Three as it is called, best met the objectives of the program that was set out, recognizing the call was for a higher dollar amount. It was still felt, even after a review was done, that it was the right decision.

I should say I am not comfortable with talking specifics about the differences in proposals in public. I would prefer if there were some other means by which to be made accountable. It would seem to be unnecessarily critiquing or making negative comments about proposals that were received in good faith by this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's answer and I too, agree that getting into the details about specific competitive proposals is not in the interest of the House. My supplementary would lead into what the Minister suggested, a way of handling these kinds of discrepancies. In the RFP process, there seems to be something lacking that would allow a structured appeal process that would help build accountability and transparency which this government wants to seek.

My question is, will the Minister look into the RFP process and see if a structured appeal process can be built in? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can tell the Member that there are similar sentiments in the government, and we recognize that there are some concerns about the way we procure services and award contracts.

The Financial Management Board Secretariat has initiated a general accumulated review this past fall. The request for proposals, the business incentive policy and other policies, procedures and processes by which we seek procurement are currently being reviewed. So the Member's comments are timely and will be taken into account. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased the department will look into building a better process along with the Financial Management Board Secretariat.

Given the Northwest Territories Family Services is within days of losing this contract, and given that there is a recognition that the process needs improvement, will the Minister undertake to review the award of this contract, for the Northwest Territories Family Assistance Program and include the Northwest Territories Family Services in a further review of this particular RFP?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The contract has been awarded. Legally, we have made a commitment to the group. We have done a review, although there was no obligation to do a review, and we feel the decision by the committee that made the initial recommendation was done in compliance with the process and procedure that was set out.

Thank you, Minister Kakfwi. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question will be directed to the Premier of the Northwest Territories. It is based on Tabled Document 27-14(2), which is a transcription of an interview the Premier did with CBC. The interview was a reflection of his trip to Ottawa.

On a number of occasions they speak of the potential and what was accomplished in that trip. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kakfwi stated that one of the goals was to get the attention of Ottawa. At one point he stated, "I think that we did capture their attention".

Mr. Speaker, I believe we do get their attention, seeing as they receive 95 cents of every dollar that comes out of this ground in royalty resources. We would have their attention since we have diamond mines, oil and gas. Hopefully, we at least have their attention in that area.

Mr. Speaker, the area of concern is, are there going to be any differences made in the near future to the revenue coming from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories? Yesterday, I heard Mr. Handley say they will be sending someone up from the Minister of Finance's office to review our books. I think that is a step backwards.

Mr. Kakfwi states in the interview that there is some minor relief in sight. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know from the Premier, in what instance might there be some minor relief? Can he elaborate on that in this forum so we know what we can expect as we review the interim appropriation? So we know when we are putting new resources out there, how far can we go? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have not seen the tabled document or transcripts of the interview with CBC radio. So it probably stands to have some minor adjustments and corrections.

Having said that, it is my view that there is an opportunity to develop a good working relationship with Ottawa, with the Prime Minister's Office, with the Minister of Finance, Paul Martin, and with the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, Bob Nault. There is interest. I think they realize the position we are in.

The aboriginal leadership has unanimously called for a construction of a pipeline they would like to own and manage themselves. This spells and articulates a profound change in the North, an opportunity that was only dreamt about only a few years ago. We are on the verge of making even more progress in the area of settling claims and self-government negotiations.

There is a signal from the aboriginal groups that they are prepared to discuss devolution and revenue sharing. The federal government has said categorically they want to move as quickly as we can. There is, at a very minimum, a possibility that with the completion of an economic development strategy the federal government had requested a couple of years ago, we could see some generic funding made available not only to the Northwest Territories but to the Yukon and Nunavut as well.

This is the only part of Canada that does not enjoy money flowing to it through an economic development agreement. This has been noticeably absent from the Northwest Territories and Yukon for a number of years now. There is always a lot of room for optimism. This has been a very hectic two months. We are two months and a week into our mandate as a new government, a new Premier and a new Cabinet. We have not had time to consider reductions that we have had in the departments, for which we are being set up to be soundly chastised for. I believe those things will come once we finalize priorities with the Caucus and with the aboriginal leadership in the course of this year.

Those types of things will be looked at. In the meantime, we are setting the stage for what I hope will be a very positive and productive working relationship with the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Premier for that great length of detail to my question. Mr. Speaker, in the interview he was asked if the Prime Minister should come North. He spoke quite eloquently in saying the Prime Minister has fond memories of the Northwest Territories when he was a past Minister of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in his days in the Liberal government.

I am afraid, Mr. Speaker, that we are, in fact, going to only have fond memories of this if we do not stop the bleeding out of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, we have heard the Minister of Finance project a $42 million deficit. This will not go down in subsequent years. Will the minor adjustments close that sort of gap? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, we are a little over two months into our mandate. We have, I think, managed our time incredibly well. We have managed to set up the basis for a good work relationship with the federal government. We have set the stage for a very good and productive working relationship with the aboriginal leaders and, no doubt, we have tried to maintain a close working relationship with Members of the Caucus. We have not set priorities by ourselves. We have not gone about setting up how to reduce expenditures and that type of thing unilaterally. We have come here presenting an interim appropriation budget based on what we need because we have had no time to look at a well thought out comprehensive approach to reducing expenditures.

I must say that the stage is set. We can work well together if Members wish. We can continue to do that. With respect to the work relationship with the federal government, the outlook is excellent. The relationship with the aboriginal peoples continues to improve and the potential is there. I would say to the Member have faith, remain optimistic, and compliment us on the things we do because I think we are doing well so far. It should produce results through the course of the four years we are here to serve you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will gladly pat the Premier and his Ministers on the back when we see the money. Mr. Speaker, yes, we have had some time to do some work and we support the action the government is taking by going to Ottawa and trying to secure more dollars. What we are trying to get from this is, has there been any amount that has been set out there that will narrow the gap we find ourselves in now with a $42 million deficit? Do we have any possible numbers out there that would see this being drawn together instead of going further apart, so we do not hit our debt wall?

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Premier, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was hoping the Member would say that even if we all stayed poor together, he would still continue to support our valiant efforts to get out of our present predicament.

Mr. Speaker, there are indications that the federal government will be prepared to look at a draft economic strategy and provide some resources to support us on that. The devolution process, the cost to move the devolution agenda along has yet to be addressed. The cost for setting up an intergovernmental forum has yet to be addressed with the federal government. There have been some suggestions as to how that may be done. They are very general and by no means do we think anyone should be accountable for the initial remarks that have been made regarding that in our discussions with Mr. Martin and Mr. Nault.

We know that in the Atlantic region for instance, there have been specific dollars for oil and gas development, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $250 million, specifically set up for the governments in that area to get into oil and gas development. We know that the federal government is open to the idea of project specific dollars that could be made available to the North to realize some of these things.

I know that there is a basis set for what could be some very productive discussions in the next month or so. Once the session is over, we hope to set up meetings again to build on the initial contact and initial basis we have set for further discussions. That is the extent to which we have done our work.

As the Member would know, last week when we were in Ottawa, it was at the height of a filibuster by the Reform Party and the Bloc Quebecois. In spite of that, we did have some meetings. It was done in spite of the fact that there was controversy on the eve of the Liberal convention about the leadership. In spite of that, the Prime Minister, Mr. Martin and Mr. Nault, when we met with them, gave us their undivided attention. They were relaxed, focused, and as I said, keenly interested in the views we shared with them. There is a commitment to meet and meet again shortly to build on the initial discussions we started. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Final supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the optimism is good, but I am concerned we have stretch limo optimism while we have a Volkswagen budget. Mr. Speaker, can the Premier inform us, or will he update this House as work continues so that we may know and reply to our constituents about some of these meetings and hopefully the success he will have? Thank you.