Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think it's important to remember that this special warrant was approved on August 22nd. On August 22nd the FMBS had absolutely no idea that a landlord or potential landlord would be willing to pay for part of the tenant improvements, whether that's a small part or a big part. So that didn't factor into the decision at any time. The expectation was that the tenant, that being the Government of the Northwest Territories on behalf of the Legal Services Board, would have to pay for the entire cost of the tenant improvements, and that's typically what has happened. So if there has been a negotiation that has allowed the government to save money on this, then I think that's good news, but there was no way we could predict that was going to happen at the end of August. When I brought forward this proposal for money it was because we thought that we would need $115,000 to provide the space for two lawyers and their support staff, no matter where the office was located in Yellowknife. That was just the cost that was expected. So that's what this amount of money was based on.
Why was it not advertised again? Well, when you've had an advertisement out for space you expect that because it's a public process that you're going to get all of the people who have space submitting a response. Eighteen days is usually considered quite adequate. If somebody who wanted to submit a proposal had called Public Works and Services and said listen, I'm interested, would you consider extending so that I have a chance to respond, I suspect that they would have considered it because oftentimes RFP closing dates are extended. So I think that probably would have been possible.
The other problem with advertising again, would have been with the delay. The reason that I sought the money was because I was very anxious to be able to get the Legal Services Board another office so they could start to deal with the backlog as quickly as possible. We didn't want to wait any longer than we absolutely had to in order to get this office open. So we had already advertised for lawyers, the process had been started to find new staff lawyers. There's not much point in having the staff if you don't have a place for them to work out of. So there was quite a bit of urgency on my part to make sure that this was moved forward. I didn't personally put any pressure on the department not to re-advertise, but they knew that I was anxious and the department was anxious to see this go ahead and I suspect that there was some concern about the extra time that it would take if the process of advertising had to be undertaken again. Thank you, Madam Chair.