Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will try to respond to the Member's questions. The way the system works is that as the bids come in, a local bid is allowed 5 percent more than a territorial bid that is not local. In other words, a local bid would be allowed a 20 percent preference.

As an example, Mr. Speaker, if we received a bid from down south that was lower than any bid we received in the Territories, the territorial bids would then be calculated to see if they qualify for a 15 percent reduction or 20 percent reduction, and then those totals compared to the southern bid to see if in fact the territorial bid is lower. That is how it works. It does not necessarily apply to every portion of a contract that is under an umbrella project.

For instance, if the project is managed as this one is, although it is a $20 million project, it consists of a number of smaller contracts, which could be from anywhere from $100,000 to $4 million or $5 million. The local contractors, in some cases, find themselves bidding on a million-dollar contract, which to them is quite large. That is where we find that there is a possibility that the southern contractors may give us a better bid on portions of the contract.

I hope I am not confusing the thing, but that is basically how this contract is being handled. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I question whether some Ministers take these motions seriously. There are motions that have been passed and some have not received a response for quite some time. I would like to ask if there is a time frame when we could expect some kind of recognition that there is some action being taken on these motions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly agree with the Minister that this government should be obligated to respond. I would like to ask if there is any one person from Cabinet, be it the House Leader, the Premier or the Deputy Premier, that is tracking some of these motions that have been passed. Are there Ministers who are delinquent on some of these motions that have been passed either in committee of the whole or in the House? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. There are two questions there and the honourable Deputy Premier can answer whichever one he chooses. Mr. Antoine.

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

Thank you. That may be part of the problem, that the Ministers are allowed to police themselves when it comes to processing the motions. We have no mechanism and we have no real way of knowing if those motions are taken forward to Cabinet. Will the Deputy Premier consider a mechanism that will allow us to also be able to track where the motions are in terms of proceeding to Cabinet? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on the questions from my colleague for Hay River North, maybe the Minister of Public Works and Services could answer for me a question about the definition of local when it comes to BIP.

We have heard a lot of discussion today in the House about creating an equal playing field between southern companies and northern companies, but when the local percentage is applied, now we are talking quite often about competition and competitive bids between two northern companies. Then the issue of what is the definition of a local company becomes very important. I will give you a couple of examples.

For example, the headquarters for the departments of the government are all located in Yellowknife. It would stand to reason that those departments would do purchasing on behalf of numerous communities at a time. They would put something out to tender and following that logic that a Yellowknife company would be given local preference, but that does not mean that the product or service consumed is being used in Yellowknife. It could be redistributed across the Territories, and yet it would put Fort Smith, Hay River or Inuvik at a distinct disadvantage.

The issue of local preference is big too, so I would like the Minister of Public Works and Services to tell us what the definition of local is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Before we go to the Minister, I would like to just remind Members about the use of long, detailed questions expecting long, detailed answers. Perhaps some of those are better as written questions and allow question period for much shorter questions. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works and Services, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to accommodate the Member by being able to respond at this point in time. However, I do not have a copy of the Business Incentive Policy in front of me. In the Business Incentive Policy, there would be the specific definition of local. I am going to have to take this question as notice and supply the Member with an accurate description of what is meant by local. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The Minister is taking the question as notice. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is on the cancellation of BIP again, and I think I am posing my question to the Deputy Premier. He has indicated that Cabinet is free to make the decision to cancel a policy like the Business Incentive Policy whenever it deems it appropriate, necessary or whatever. I am assuming that Cabinet is free to do so with every other policy, I do not know. This is creating chaos rather than clarification.

The information we have right now is that there is no information on how much the Cabinet or government will benefit. It could be possible that Members on this side of the House may be able to accept this decision if we can be shown that by lifting or cancelling this BIP policy, the government stands to gain millions of dollars or whatever, but we do not have any evidence of that. Could the Minister provide that please?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Antoine.