Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, if a piece of road is not adjacent to or through any local community, then it is possible that no one would get the local preference.

In the case of Hay River, or any other community, a company located in one of those communities would only get local preference if the work they were bidding on was either in that municipality or immediately adjacent to it. That is the condition under the current BIP.

I can also, Mr. Speaker, ask the Department to raise this issue with the BIP Steering Committee to look at it, but we have to operate with the BIP policy as it currently exists. Thank you.