Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to say I am in support of this motion. I didn’t attend the briefing for this particular department, but I haven’t seen any data that can convince me contracting out is going to save us money.

I hear the Minister talking about bands and so on, local businesses taking over such contracts, but I wonder whether or not there is an organization in Fort Simpson that has offered to do it — if there is anybody ready and willing.

I also understand this is a next year’s reduction, but it has to be talked about now, because the employees have already received notice of their being affected.

In my experience to date, I haven’t yet found that contracting out will necessarily save money. If it does save money, it very often lessens the quality of the service that is provided.

I have my doubts, and I would seriously ask the department to provide firm rationale and strong facts and figures, which I would need to convince me that contracting out the operations and maintenance is going to be an improvement on what we have at this particular time. That said, I am in support of the motion, Mr. Chair.