Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated earlier in a response to a similar question, as a government, from time to time, we delegate the authority back to, or down to, other levels within our departments. This is one of the cases where we've delegated the authority down to the contract authority's level within Public Works and Services, again, trading within the amount of dollars that they have the authority to approve. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up my questions with the Minister of MACA, on the chipsealing program. The Minister indicated earlier, that it only takes two days to lay down the chipseal. How many years have we been asking to have the chipsealing program in the Sahtu, with the community of Fort Good Hope being targeted as one of the communities? Why does it take so long to stretch out that two days of work in chipsealing our roads in the Sahtu? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, we have to have a design of the roads. We have to ensure that we have a good, solid base. In some communities, we've had to reconstruct a good portion of the roads, the main streets. We also have to ensure that there's proper drainage, and in a lot of cases, that has required us to do surveys, and provide new culverts, and provide the new access roads. So it takes a lot of time to do some of the design. It takes a lot of time to do some of the reconstruction of the actual road base and the main street. It also takes a good period of time to provide the materials. We have to bring the materials on site; we have to have the equipment in the vicinity to do the actual crushing. So all those things are factored in, and it takes a couple of years. In a lot of cases, especially in the Sahtu, the communities are not serviced by year-round roads, so we have to plan around the winter road system and winter road season. So it really takes a lot longer. In some cases, where there's direct access, such as in Fort Providence and other communities, it's relatively easy, and we can do it over a couple of seasons. But in the case of the Sahtu, it takes longer. Along with that, there was one year when we didn't do any work because the money was not in the budget, as per the budget reductions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, the region I represent is hindered because we don't have the access for the direct services, as the Minister indicated. I guess I wanted to ask the Minister to ask his officials about the pilot project on alternatives to chipsealing, and when that can be done in the Sahtu. He's listed a lot of things that need to get done, and I think that's why I see it taking so long to get the chipseal in our community. Is his department considering alternatives in the pilot project for some of the main street roads in our communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, we are looking at other alternatives to the chipseal program that we've been focusing on for the last while. While the chipseal program would deal with the dust issue on the main street, we still have all the other roads in the communities that have a problem with dust. So we have done a study for dust control. We hired a contractor. We have that report now. We are working with a number of communities to put this in place. It requires an analysis of the materials that are being used in the area to construct the roads. Once you determine that, and we are able to use different modes of applying dust suppression...we have embarked on this as a pilot project already; and we are looking at four communities, those of Fort Good Hope, Tulita, Lutselk'e and Fort McPherson. We've done the sampling, and we expect those reports back, and we plan to apply the appropriate dust suppressant by this coming summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, would he look within his department, and other departments, such as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment or Aurora College, for training programs? The Minister has indicated a number of things that need to happen, such as design, and reconstruction, and proper drainage, and surveying, and equipment needs. Would the Minister consider one of these pilot projects to look at the other departments, and ask if they have some initiatives, or support, in terms of having a small training program for the communities that they could look at doing this work under an initiative, such as a training program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, of course we can discuss that. A lot of the work is done by municipal contractors. The actual chipsealing is done by, usually, a regional or territorial firm. We will have discussions with municipal governments, and amongst ourselves, as government departments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to, again, question the Minister of Public Works and Services, on the policy for acquiring property, or office space, here in the Northwest Territories. From what I heard, they like to delegate the authority for sole sourcing office space, by the sounds of it. I'd like to ask him if he's going to be looking at changing the policy to state that the Executive Council reserves the right to delegate the authority to negotiate sole sourced contracts, as he just mentioned, or do we have this policy or not, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the Executive, or within FMBS, as an example, we have a lot of policies in place that refer to us as a Cabinet and Cabinet Ministers. As well, at the end of every policy, it states that it is the prerogative of the Executive to use that policy. Ultimately, as has been done in the past, and as we continue to follow it, a number of these authorities have been delegated down to either the deputy minister level or within Public Works and Services. In this particular case that the Member has raised here about office space and so on, anything that we pick up has been delegated down to contract authorities, again, to within their amount of authority they have, to have budgets on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I think, quite clearly, that the Cabinet has to look at changing the policy. I shudder to think what the business community out there in the Northwest Territories is thinking, and how they're supposed to interpret these policies that are out there, when our Minister doesn't even really seem to know how to interpret this policy. How are businesses out there supposed to compete and have that fair advantage across the board, Mr. Speaker? I'd like to also ask the Minister, while I have the opportunity, one of the things I do know...There are two things. One thing I don't know is what we're getting this office space in Fort Simpson for. Nobody seems to know the rate that's being charged. All I could find out, Mr. Speaker, was the fact that we're going to spend about $65,000 to house five ITI employees in a building for 12 months. That's $5,000 a month, Mr. Speaker, just in leasehold improvements alone. I'd like to ask the Minister how this can be allowed to happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member obviously doesn't want to understand what I'm trying to tell him about our contract practices, the delegation of those authorities, and then coming back to the one project or office space example. Mr. Speaker, the issue of office space required in Fort Simpson was one that was looked at by the department. The department looked for adequate space. It was felt that the only place that had available space, that met the requirements that were established, was the proponent that we are dealing with now. In fact, if we were to go out and put out an RFP, then we would be looking for

somebody to build a new office space, which wouldn't fit our timelines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.