Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, reading unedited Hansard from yesterday, page 1362, I would like to quote a statement:

I did receive a phone call from a contractor in Inuvik asking us if the department was competing with them in the crushing business. I told him as far as I am concerned and as I know, the department is not interested in competing with them.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, how is it that you state that you are not interested in competing against a contractor yet, Mr. Speaker, this was not a government contract, so how could you have been competing against this contractor?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The question is directed to the honourable Minister responsible for Transportation. I am not sure what the question was. I will give you an opportunity to rephrase the question, or repeat the question, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Minister's statement, he said that the department is not interested in competing with him. I would like to ask the Minister, how could the department be competing against him in regard to this contract for crushing gravel? What was meant by you were not interested in competing with them, yet this was not a government contract?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is a very hard question to answer without having to speculate on what the thought was of the contractor. I believe in the discussions with the contractor, it was suggested that if our pit became available to the general public, including the town, the option was then for another contractor to put a crusher in there, we would then be considered as competing with them. That was the explanation given to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me, with regard to what you just stated, was that the reason to not allow the contract to be let and accessing that airport pit was because you were afraid you were competing against the contractor who phoned you?

I trust this is directed towards the department and not the Minister himself. Mr. Minister, you may answer if you choose. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I clarified yesterday, the department was put in a situation where we had more than one request to access that particular quarry site. We then had to take into consideration the amount of material in there, whether or not there was in fact a management plan for that particular pit, and also our future plans for the needs from that pit.

We have to keep in mind that we have major resurfacing of the Inuvik airport to come forward, maybe next year. We also have some resurfacing to do on Highway No. 8. We had to take all of this into consideration as to whether or not we could allow access into that pit at that time. The department decided it was prudent for them to put in a management plan for that pit and until we have one, we did not permit anyone access to the pit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko, but I will just ask the Member if he would observe the caution that I mentioned earlier on and direct the questions to the Chair to avoid comments like "you" and refer to the Minister or the department. Mr. Krutko, your supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again I would like to know why did they cancel the use of the contract in regard to the use of the pit, knowing that it was not a government contract and also that...

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Mr. Speaker, the only thing that came into play as to whether we allow access to the pit or not was the lack of a management plan for that particular pit. That was the only thing that we can use to make our decision and we thought that we would not -- basically limiting the town from having access to other sources. It was not a serious thing. We were not interfering with the operation of the town. We took into consideration only the management plan for the pit when we refused access to the pit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me if he is aware that the individual who called him also had a similar bid for the use of that pit, but was unsuccessful. Were you aware of that?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was not aware of the results of the tender. Those tenders were not ours.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the results have been different if the Minister did not receive this phone call?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

No, Mr. Speaker, the results would not have been different because we still had to respond to the mayor's letter and we had to take into consideration the request from the town as to whether they could have access to the quarry site. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

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