Mr. Chairman, yes, I think that there is a requirement that we do that. If we are basically spending money that is projected in a multi-year project for the next fiscal year and spend it this year, then we would have to bring it back here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the original budget was somewhere between $5.3 million and $5.4 million.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Handley

Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned before, the big piece is higher bids than what was expected. Then $150,000 of it is an increase in architect fees do to a redesign of the facility. It is a combination of those two.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Handley.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, Public Works have recently sent out an advisor indicating that they are expecting to see about a 10 percent increase in costs. That is due to heated up economy competition for skilled workers, contractors who are busy and are not hungry for new projects. So we are expecting that this is happening. It is happening here. It is probably happening in other parts of Canada right now, Alberta in particular. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, we never know for sure until we get the bids, so things can happen. Certainly with projects that were estimated a year and a half ago on the situation, then being out for tender in a different economic circumstances, then yes, we will see increases.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

With regard to the increase in the architect fees in redesigning the facility, $150,000, was after the contract was let that that increase came in with regard to the specs that were given when the contract was bid on, or is that after the fact?

Mr. Chairman, I think those architect fees for redesign took place before these bids came in. The original design was estimated to be too expensive and would increase the price of this project even more. The project was redesigned to try to keep the cost down. Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister mentioned that because of all the competition in the Inuvik region and work and what not that people are not really bidding on these jobs, but the two jobs mentioned lately were with companies from outside the region who received these contracts. Local contractors that bid on them were not successful. Because of that, you are now having to come back for more money.

From the arguments that they made in their bids, it is pretty clear that the local business community realized that their bids were going to come in a little higher than southern companies because the cost of doing business in Inuvik is going up. The cost of subcontractors with respect to power and electrical has gone up because of the demand, but the contracts that you mentioned were won by companies that are not local to the region. They are Yellowknife-based companies.

I would like to know, because of what you stated, now realizing that if you took these amounts and put them into the bids that did come in, I think a lot of the local contractors that did bid on these jobs, and if you use this increase in the margins that you are using, they would have been in the ball park for those bids.

I would like to ask the Minister, because of the amount of increases we have seen, is it because of poor planning on behalf of, say the Department of Public Works with regard to realizing there were those increases in the works, that the local contractors were telling the Department of Public Works, were telling the Departments of Justice and MACA, that there are increases? You have to consider that the price you are asking for is not doable. Have you looked at those arguments to realize that the local contractors were in the ballpark and the people that are getting these contracts are not local? They are coming in low and now we are in a situation where we are having to come back to do all these adjustments to bring their prices in line. Has the department looked at that to see exactly if that is the trend that we are seeing here?