Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to speak to the issue of the BIP revision process, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have many concerns about the proposed changes, but maybe none graver than the process that seems to have been undertaken here by this government. As my colleague Mr. Delorey has just indicated, we were let known that by September 30th, the government would be receiving input. One of Mr. Delorey's constituents called the RWED staff to offer some input. They were told that is fine, we will receive your input, but basically Cabinet has already done what it is going to do and made its decision.
Mr. Speaker, obviously that is not acceptable. If you look at the RWED website that speaks to the BIP revision, point number seven discusses why thresholds are being introduced, Mr. Speaker. It says that during consultations, the NWT business community -- business community, Mr. Speaker -- expressed the need for a dollar-value cap on the application of BIP bid adjustments. When we met in committee, Mr. Speaker, this did not seem to make too much sense to me, so I asked for minutes of the consultation process. I was looking for transcripts of the detailed minutes. I did not get them, but I did get a summary of those meetings, Mr. Speaker. In going through those, I can find a single reference to that. I can find someone saying there should be a cap on dollar value for the application of BIP. Do companies bidding on a $5 million contract really need to have the BIP application? Well, that is a valid question, Mr. Speaker, but in going through the web site, you get the indication that the NWT business community in aggregate expressed this need for a dollar-value cap.
Mr. Speaker, I think we can all see that this is an attempt by this government in imposing these thresholds to save money. Maybe it is a valid attempt and maybe it is something that warrants or merits a lot of consideration.
Mr. Speaker, it is concerning when we do not even know what the BIP is currently costing us. We know that the government is proposing goods contracts will max out at $25,000 per BIP consideration; service contracts at $100,000; construction contracts at $1 million. We are reassured by RWED that do not worry -- 95 percent of all of the contracts that we issue fall within those thresholds anyway, Mr. Speaker. I have no idea how RWED can come up with this and cannot come up with a concrete figure as to what the BIP costs us. If we really do have serious flaws in our contract administration policy, then you would think that there would be no way to know that 95 percent of our contracts meet this criteria. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.