Thank you. I do recognize that this is part of the larger system. As the Minister has said correctly, this was about installation, it's about troubleshooting, it's about warranty. I think it's also about training. I'm certain Hewlett Packard will be up here training the government staff to be able to operate the system adequately. But I think the one thing that we have to recognize, in my view, is that we missed an opportunity here to build some northern capacity in these areas. The deputy has indicated there probably will never be anybody in the North who's qualified to deliver a contract of this nature because it's so specialized, it happens so rarely and there are so few big customers. I don't know if that's true; it might be. But I think we can be certain that there will never be the capacity in the North to deliver on a contract like this if we don't involve northern companies.
Now when we do need troubleshooting, we're certainly going to have to fly somebody up from Calgary or Edmonton in order to look at the system. I think if we would have had one of the northern contractors involved looking over the shoulders of the engineers doing the installation, being involved in some of the warranty discussions, learning about troubleshooting and watching some of the training be delivered, certainly we would have had an ability to then have some capacity built and have northern operators be involved. There would have been -- as I spoke the other day in the House -- some transfer of technology, and I think that's a very important goal for us. So I do keep in mind that this is part of an overall system. I just think in this instance we missed the boat to build some capacity.
I think the folks here, the local northern firms bidding on these contracts, believe in the North, they're here because they love the North, they want to make this their home, they want to be involved here, they want to do business here and I think we have to give them that chance to do that. It is important to recognize that their business model has been premised on the idea that the government will give them some preferential treatment, or at least allow them to have access to the competitive bidding process on a number of these products.
The Minister has indicated to me that he has no qualms with the way the department handled this contract, and is satisfied that it has adhered to the policies and was well within the regulations. I think members on this side of the House have indicated some dissatisfaction and some reservations, and had hoped that the government would do things differently in future. I don't get the sense that the Minister is prepared to commit to that. But I'd like to ask the Minister if this contract were to come up next week, would the department do anything differently or would they undertake the exact same process -- sole source. If it was the same contract and they felt that somebody in the North couldn't handle the work, would they do things exactly the same way another time around should this contract come up in a week or a month or a year? Thank you.