Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last night I had the chance to read yet one more propaganda put out by this government on Novel housing and, lo and behold, I learned something new that I was not aware of before, and that is that this government, in fact, does have a formal working relationship with ATCO by way of a memorandum of agreement regarding the use of Novel manufactured homes by the MGP. It's in the document that the Minister asked me to look at.
Mr. Speaker, in learning this, the light came on in my head as to why this so-called mere Novel concept, or novel concept, has made it into this year's budget. Now I know why this government talks and acts like the biggest lobbying agent for one company; because, in fact, it has become a life partner with this, through this MOA, Mr. Speaker.
What does this mean? This means that we'll never know if ATCO is in fact the most suitable marriage partner for us in this housing project. Any responsible parent will tell their children to look around, shop around, compare. If you have five hundred million to spend, what is the best deal we can get? Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you I don't think we'll ever know. This means no other companies need to apply since one company, without any apparent competitive process, has been given the leg up and stands to become the biggest beneficiary of this project that's now worth not $297 million as I thought it was previously, but it is now worth about $500 million. Two hundred and thirty-four million from the oil producers for the cost of workforce housing, forty million dollars plus for the premium for any extra cost of making them convertible, two hundred and forty million plus from the federal government, GNWT and private sector to build the lots and set up and buy the units.
The report also states, Mr. Speaker, that the government does not know if this is the only company that can do it, but the government's not going to do their due diligence to find out. We have no info here as to whether there is the buy-in from the people who would be asked to live in these used trailers. There is no information as to where regional and community governments have bought in. There is, in fact, no information as to whether Imperial Oil is interested in this marriage because they're too busy going through the regulatory process.
So, Mr. Speaker, I have to accept that there has been a marriage, but I need to still see that...