Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this question was directed to Mr. Howard.

Mr. Howard.

Excuse me, could just restate that last section. Your microphone was turned off before you concluded your comment.

Thank you, Mr. Howard. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In fact, I believe that you will find that the date was given before which the work could not start and a date was given by which the work must be completed and the total elapsed time in there was about three weeks.

So that three week period, this contractor felt, was the schedule and as long as he had supplied the bid, he was agreeing to meet that schedule, because the dates were stipulated. A period of three weeks to do all of the highways. If he had needed four weeks, he would have asked for an extension.

Given a total price, how often does this government go and ask for unit prices if they have not been shown on contracts, or in bids? It is actually not uncommon for that to happen, to ask a contractor who they are intending to use for a sub or their equipment list? This may have been an opportunity for northern business to see if they could get into this business to purchase the equipment or at least, find a way to get the equipment to ensure that they could get the contract in the future and perhaps save us significant monies.

I see I am running out of time, Mr. Chairman, so really I would like to go back to the Minister. The Minister's response was that he is afraid to get involved in interfering in the contracts because of what happened in the 13th Assembly. If there is no room for ministerial involvement in this government, then we probably do not need Ministers. We should just have deputy ministers. In fact, I think that it is the responsibility of the Ministers to provide political direction to their departments and I would ask this Minister to demonstrate the leadership and follow through on the sort of commitment that Mr. Handley spoke about, as was needed here, to support northern businesses by ensuring that he instructs his department, in the future, to keep in mind the importance of northern business when they are looking at bids.

In situations like this, where they have only one bidder, then I think that they should, perhaps, talk to the bidder about getting the information that might be missing, so that we can encourage the development of northern business rather than continuing to send business south. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do not believe I said I was afraid to get involved. I said that I was sensitive to the issues and to what happened to the departments in the 13th Assembly. In response to whether or not there is a need for Ministers and for Ministers to get involved politically, I believe, Mr. Chairman, that we have, as a government, established policies whereby our managers manage and our deputy ministers make decisions based on those policies.

Now, there was no reason at this point in time, according to the circumstances given to me, for me to interfere. There were policies written. We have to abide by those policies, otherwise we are asked why we did not abide by them, and we have to question why we have them if we are not going to abide by them.

So I believe that the department was following the business guidelines. They were following the policies and simply made a decision based on those policies. There was no requirement for me to get involved as the Minister. Nobody asked for my involvement. That is my response to the Member, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one issue that I neglected to touch on earlier and that is the issue of accountability. It is an issue that I have raised with all Ministers coming before the Legislature for money. In light of the fact that the department has a $68 million budget and in light of the comments made a few days back in the House by the Minister, that there are no clear, measurable ways by which to make government Ministers or deputy ministers accountable for not meeting targets, I would just like the Minister to speak to the issue. As Minister responsible for the Departments of Transportation and Public Works and Services, what is his concept of accountability as he sits before the House with his department, with a budget and a business plan, and he will be doing the same again with another department in a little while. Is he accountable to this Legislature as Minister? Thank you.

Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have no problem advising the Member that I am accountable for every pothole out there. That is the message that we get. We always seem to be held responsible for things that do not work, but we are never given any credit for those things that do work.

To make a long answer short, yes, I agree with the Member that I am responsible for the department. I am responsible for how they spend these dollars and I think I have said in the past, that in the end, the Minister is responsible.

My department officials have, I believe, a very fair and effective system of accountability, from the guy down on the street right up to the top and it seems to be working. We do not have any situations yet where we have a problem of accountability. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his comments, though I could barely hear him over the sad violins in the background.

So let me tell him here that, once again, I recognize the work that is being done in the capital plan with the airport terminals and I think he has a fine crew of people on the highways in Fort Smith and in the South Slave. Just so he does not feel totally whipped and unappreciated.

-- Laughter

There is recognition, though there is never enough.

The only reason I raise that issue is because of the Premier's comments in this House and the confusing and unclear debate surrounding accountability. So I wanted to, as I have with every Minister, get that clarification and I thank the Minister for his comments. Thank you.

Just a comment. Is anybody else hearing violins in here? There might be something wrong with our headsets.

We are on highways, 10-15.

Operations expense. Total operations expense, $34,947,000.

Ferries, 10-19, ferries operations expense, total operations expense, $4,907,000.

Community marine operations, expense, total operations expense, $215,000.