Mr. Chairman, in retrospect, given the feathers that were ruffled, that probably would have been a good idea. We did know who could supply the equipment because we did contact Hewlett Packard and we found out from them who was qualified to supply the equipment. The companies that are established in the North will probably never be in a position to provide that same type of equipment. It requires a level of expertise that Hewlett Packard is able to afford to maintain, but typically small businesses would not be able to because there isn't a large enough volume of business here to ever support that. So it seems to us to be fairly straightforward that, with the input we had from Hewlett Packard, there was a strong case for the sole-source and we did not anticipate that others wouldn't understand that. The next time, perhaps we will anticipate that.
Mr. Rattray on Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
In the Legislative Assembly on March 10th, 2003. See this statement in context.
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
March 9th, 2003
Page 635
Rattray
See context to find out what was said next.