Mr. Chairman, we are confident that these sole-sourced contracts fit within the intent of the sole-sourcing guidelines. First of all, on the urgency one, we had an opportunity last summer. We continue to have that opportunity, I believe, to take advantage of the energy crisis that is being faced in North America, both on electrical and also on the gas.

In this case, we were looking at the hydroelectric potential of the North. There is a federal energy reference committee that is doing work. We wanted to ensure that the rest of Canada knew that we had this huge potential here worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

So in terms of urgency, I believe that there was an urgency and certainly a public interest in having good work done urgently.

In terms of capability, we went to the best sources of information. We had to get answers very quickly. Some of the specific work that we were looking at, for example, the Taltson work, was deemed to be urgent by the South Slave leadership. It was not only us but some of the leadership who are looking at these issues felt that there was an urgency to carry on with this. Thank you.