Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier regarding Cabinet decisions allowing for negotiated contracts. Mr. Speaker, the process is decided by Cabinet to allow for the contract to be either negotiated or sole-sourced. In most cases, what we have seen is that there seems to be a trend in this government where a lot of these contracts that either have gone to Cabinet to be approved for negotiated contract, got the approval from Cabinet. Then, at the end of it all, some department, Public Works and other departments, may dispute the amount set in the contract. Then they go out to a public tender. Then what we see is they come back to this government to get more money to complete the contract because it exceeds their mandate.

I would like to ask the Premier, what is his government doing to ensure there is monitoring of how these contracts are dealt with if they do not meet the criteria of a negotiated contract, go to public tender, then to come back way over the margins that are set through the planning process?