Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise about the benefits of being a large centre in the Northwest Territories, especially when you find yourself to be the capital of the Northwest Territories and government has situated itself there and does a lot of its business in the capital.
Mr. Speaker, a lot of things we've done in the government over the years has been trying to diversify the economy to help out communities and small businesses throughout the territory. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, it seems like we've started to go back the other way. The other way, Mr. Speaker, being, I can recall, for example, in Inuvik where the government services department -- stores, as they called it -- had everything from copper elbows to screws to nuts and bolts to anything you can fix that the government owns. We've gone away from that, Mr. Speaker. We've gone towards each community being able to supply and develop its own professional people that can repair things in their communities and not having to ship people out of headquarters or from regional centres.
Mr. Speaker, I used to work for the government and travelled to the smaller communities to fix their equipment, and that now has been devolved so communities themselves have their own maintenance people and mechanics to be able to fix their own equipment. We've done that throughout the Northwest Territories, but it seems that we've once again started pulling it back into the centre to try to help out government expenditures, I guess is the main reason that would be used, is that we need to save our dollars.
So, Mr. Speaker, I think as a government we have to think, are we doing the right thing by pulling things back into the centre? I'll use a specific example, Mr. Speaker. Recently, a tender was let out by the Department of Public Works and Services for over 100 computers. Mr. Speaker, over 100 computers were put out in one tender. One tender, Mr. Speaker, given out to compete across the Northwest Territories. I can tell you, since the government has gone to this system of going to every department and doing one large tender for computer services, what happens is all the small companies throughout the Northwest Territories do not get that service or cannot bid and match the services of a larger centre that deals strictly in volume. It's a known benefit, Mr. Speaker, that the more volume you get for equipment and service the cheaper you can supply a service or supply materials.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for at least one Minister, maybe more, in this area of where government is heading in regard to small businesses across the Northwest Territories and having to remind this government that one of our goals that we had for Towards a Better Tomorrow would be to have a healthy and diversified economy providing employment opportunities for Northerners in all communities. So I'll have questions for the Public Works and Services Minister later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause