Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my statement yesterday regarding the granting of sole-sourced contracts and my statement on Friday and Ms. Bisaro’s yesterday regarding the setting of government policy without the input of Members, I would like to table two further sole-sourced contracts with a total value of $67,150. One for $35,000 with Angevine Economic Consulting of Calgary is to assess whether natural gas prices would drive some coal-fired electrical generating stations to use natural gas and “therefore reduce greenhouse emissions.” The other is a $32,000 sole-sourced contract with Matthews Energy Consulting to develop a communications strategy on the environmental benefits of northern natural gas based upon the results of the first contract.
The key products of this work were apparently notes for a speaking tour and a promotional CD all under the slogan Gas is Green. Here again I wonder where the mandate to take such a position was obtained and how much rigorous review the products received.
The later contract proposal says the work will address the public policy issues that need to be considered, yet Members have never been asked to consider or set public policy on propaganda to sell fossil fuels as green. Had we been, we would at least have required, I suspect, that they must demonstrably replace more carbon intensive fuels such as coal or fuel oil and not be used to fuel carbon-spewing tar sands. Nor were Members consulted before Premier Roland emerged from the Northern Territorial Leaders Conference last year to announce that no carbon taxes would be considered.
Each Regular Member here can come up with a list of such key priorities into which they have had little or no input, despite our interest and mandate from the voters. Gas is Green, the Science Agenda, Cost of Living Framework, Agreement on Internal Trade, final consensus government policy on carbon taxes all developed and even announced without any input from elected representatives.
It was pointed out yesterday that former Ministers are being contracted to continue influencing government policy. Perhaps contractors have more input into the policy of government than the Members do, but if this is truly to be a consensus government, we need a whole new approach. As Ms. Bisaro said yesterday, we need more than ad hoc offers of briefings when Members ask troublesome questions.
Mr. Speaker, I will be following up with questions on how this government will ensure improved input of
Regular Members into important policy decisions and development. Mahsi.