Mr. Speaker, the Food Mail Program is probably long overdue for an overhaul and I think many Members in this House have recognized that. We’ve had some discussions over the years as to possible changes. Our desire was to see this review finally came to reality in the last couple of years. In 2008 there was a review through the federal government with an assignment with a number of consultants to do an evaluation and, more recently, there were further reviews that are ongoing that we are hoping will make the necessary changes.

At the request of the Members of this House, we did talk to INAC and they responded to our request that was posed for them to come and make a presentation to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning on September 21st . They did

come and do that and reported a number of the findings and recommendations that they are looking at.

At this point, Mr. Speaker, there are three scenarios, three options that they are reviewing and will be considering and making a decision on in the near future. The first one is the concept of using a point of sale system that would allow the retailer to discount the item based on the INAC subsidy level. The second option is the freight retail subsidy where the retailer would claim a subsidy for eligible food shipped to retail locations, and the third is a revised transportation subsidy and that would allow for a number of changes to the existing program such as modifying the eligible food, modifying entry points and adjusting the current subsidy rates and dealing with some of the shipping issues and rates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Given the cost of living in most northern communities, it makes healthy living a luxury only for the privileged that can afford it. Currently the residents of Nunakput could pay up to $10 for a small bag of salad. Given the current

approach, it seems just not to revise the status quo. Mr. Speaker, this government has to place the current review changes to the Food Mail Program a priority and get involved in regards to the point of sale. That is what I would like to see, an actual...When you go to the store, you will have two prices, the price that the store paid and the price of the cost of shipping. Would the Minister work with us to see if that could happen? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Department of Transportation has taken the lead role on this whole review and also has been providing oversight on the Food Mail Program for quite a few years now, and we are working and have partnered up with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and the Department of Health, and we are looking at the options and looking to see what are the benefits and the pros and cons of each option that has been put forward.

Indian Affairs has had their representatives come and make their presentation to committee. I am sure every Member will be in a position to make their comments directly to INAC.

We, of course, will be happy to accommodate any Members that want to make a recommendation or have discussion with our staff. Of course, Mr. Speaker, there has been some indication through the Rural and Remote committee to have further discussion. I believe there was a real desire to have a recommendation brought forward from them and we are still waiting to see if that discussion is going to take place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I really want to work with the Minister with regard to this and Rural and Remote committee. We know how important this is to our people in the small, remote communities, people on income support, people with big families that are having to struggle with the high cost of living and trying to feed their kids right now, Mr. Speaker. The biggest thing is getting in to speak with the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to get this rectified sooner rather than later. People are going hungry in the communities, Mr. Speaker, and we have to do something soon. Thank you.

We are always looking for opportunities to reduce the costs of living in the communities. This is an excellent way to do it. We have roughly 18 communities that take part and take advantage of the Food Mail Program as it exists. However, we are still a very small percentage in terms of the overall budget that is set out for the rest of Canada and we’d be very happy to see what the recommendations are from the Members. If there was a submission the Member wants to make, we’d be glad to forward that. We’d also be very pleased to share our recommendations, once that’s formalized and presented to committee, and have that brought

forward for the federal government’s consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a final, short supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to let the Minister know I sent a letter about two and a half weeks ago to Indian and Northern Affairs regarding the point of sale concept. I’d like to see that implemented in the local stores in the communities. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister that anything he’s going to do with Indian and Northern Affairs, if he could keep me apprised as he goes forward and any updates from the Minister. Thank you.

We’d be pleased to include all the Members that are involved in the program and all the Members that represent communities in the program and the appropriate committee as to our next steps and our actions that we’ll be following through with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7, oral questions.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier and they follow up on the issue of contracts let at the ministerial level to prior Ministers and high-level government officials.

Recent revelations on the practices of sole-source contracting point out an absence of definition in contracting and verification of deliverables, poor or meaningless justifications for granting contracts on a sole-sourced basis, a lack of consideration or ignorance of possible conflicting interests of contractors, very slow disclosure of contracting activity, weakness of restrictions on acceptance of contracts by former senior politicians and senior officials, and sole-sourced contracts going to southern firms for services that might have been supplied by NWT businesses.

I’ll be raising some of these issues through the Board of Management, through a letter, to see if

those can be addressed, but in the meantime can the Premier say what measures he will be putting in place now to ensure that contracts are written to provide detailed and explicit definition of services and deliverables, and that the decision to sole source is justified with detailed and meaningful justifications as to why the sole-source recipient is the only possible source of the service, and including specific justification of the need to hire southern rather than northern firms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked a number of questions in that one item. There was a fair bit of information there and I’ll have to get back to the Member once I have a chance to review the Hansard as to all the details he’s requested in that question. Thank you.

I appreciate that that was quite an extensive question. Perhaps to start with, what are the mechanisms for tuning up our contracting processes at the ministerial level? I’ll just note that when talking to bureaucrats they have to jump through a lot of hoops before they issue a sole-sourced contract, for example. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. It’s a rubberstamp, identical wording on all of them. So what are the tune-ups? What are the options for tuning up this process that the Premier can envision? Thank you.

Instead of going into a process of what my opinion might be on some of this work, what we would be prepared to do is take the items, for example, we have a number of contracting sources or ways of getting services from contractors out there, sole sources. One of them is by invitational tender, negotiated contract, public tender, RFPs, RFQs. What I’d be prepared to do is, if Members want to see a particular area looked at, I would be prepared to go to my Cabinet colleagues to see what areas were there and bring a paper back for discussion through committee. Thank you.

I’ll assume that when the Premier does review the Hansard, he will have my list of suggestions for him and his colleagues in Cabinet to look at. Can the Premier also state his view on whether or not we should establish a registration for lobbyists to declare their various interests for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Once again, the Member is asking my opinion, my view on something. Again, we have a contracting process in place. If Members want to see something like a registry occur in the Northwest Territories, we’d have to have that discussion as a full body and decide where we would go with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that my having raised this, then, will cause the Premier to bring it forward for discussion.

The last one, really, is the justifications on sole-sourced contracts, the unbelievable hoops that our bureaucrats have to jump through to let a sole-sourced contract and yet we’re using a rubberstamp with the same old wording saying these are uniquely qualified companies here. That doesn’t do it, Mr. Speaker. I’m looking for how the Premier will investigate ways to bump that up in a transparent and a much more accountable way so that we can have confidence in our sole-sourced contracts. Thank you.

As a government, we’re prepared to work with Members of the Legislative Assembly. I know there’s a lot of interest in different areas by all Members, whether it is a contracting issue or an income security question and so on and so forth for ourselves. If Members of this Assembly want to see some changes, we’re prepared to work with Members.

The Member has raised this issue on a number of occasions during this sitting. We’ve provided him information. I’ve said that if Members want to see a change to this, we would work with members of the committee. So if standing committee wants to write a letter to us to suggest changes, we’re prepared to look at those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.