Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the MLA for Frame Lake, it gives me great pleasure to be able to acknowledge two of my constituents who are long-time residents of Yellowknife. Jim and Marion Wylie will celebrate their 60th wedding

anniversary two weeks from today, on June 18th .

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This couple has demonstrated a wonderful commitment to each other and to their marriage. A 60th anniversary is no small achievement and

should be greatly admired. Jim tells me that the reason that they have had a successful marriage is due to the fact that they never argued about money. I would like to recognize the accomplishment of Mr. and Mrs. Wylie and offer my congratulations to them on reaching this significant and enviable milestone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

On behalf of all Nunakput and Paulatuk residents, it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the 50th wedding anniversary of

Edward and Mabel Gruben. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 9th of this year.

Edward was very much involved in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement through the Committee on Original People’s Entitlement. Edward travelled frequently to the Nunakput communities, particularly during the ratification of the final agreement. Mr. Speaker, he is a really well-respected community leader, sitting on numerous boards and helped to benefit his people in the community of Paulatuk. Mr. Speaker, I

wish to extend to him and his family best wishes for him and Mabel and their family. All the best on their next 60 years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Item 8, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Public Works and Services in light of being the project management department on the $100 million school being expended in Inuvik. As part of that, this was a negotiated contract which was pretty well given to the contractor with some understanding that there were going to be some socio-economic benefits flowing to the local community and the local business community to take advantage of this $100 million investment.

I would like to ask the Minister in regards to the negotiated contract with a conclusive list of the subcontractors for those contracts. What guarantee do those people who are on that list have that they are going to be used for those specific contracts and the work that is taking place on those contracts?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with interest to the Member’s statement regarding this issue, especially the mention that nobody responded even though the two MLAs from Inuvik were notified, Mr. Speaker. I want to clarify that. Both MLAs have raised this issue with me. The Member is correct; there is a list of subcontractors. There are roughly 20-plus subtrades listed on the list in the agreement or the appendix that was provided to us. For the most part, we expect and have seen that these are the subtrades that the general contractor is using.

In this situation, there is a requirement by code for fabrication of the metal to be in a certified steel shop. There is no such place in Inuvik. There is no certified steel shop and the welders have to have a certain designation. That is the reason this contract went to a company in Whitehorse. They have come back to the community and have posted notice that they will hire the services of the welding companies in Inuvik but, at the present time, there is not a company that can do this specified type of work. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I raised in this House before on this particular matter in which the

Gwich’in Development Corporation, which has a trucking company out of Inuvik which got four loads of gravel for the site where we expended some $6 million. Now we find out we have a welding company out of Inuvik who received some 24 hours of employment on the jobsite and again we are not using those contractors who are listed as subs in regards to this contract. Regardless, we used a company out of Whitehorse and whatnot with all the expertise in the world, the contract is clear. This is a negotiated contract which had a byproduct of the contract which specifically states who the subs were going to be on those sites, not bring somebody in after the fact and say, well, we are sorry. We don’t really need you now but we will use you later. That is not the way…

Do you have a question, Mr. Krutko?

Is there going to be a report tabled in this Legislative Assembly which will clearly stipulate who is receiving what dollars on the $100 million contract so we can see exactly what the benefit is to the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, I understood that the Member had already seen the list. I certainly can provide him again with the list of subcontractors.

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what we expect the general contractor to do if there is no certified facility in the community to provide this certain type of fabrication. They were obligated to go where it was available. They did so. They went to the closest resource and that was in Whitehorse. We certainly can go back to the developer and ask them to update their list. The project is still in its early stages. They are doing quite a bit of work. Some of it has not been rolled out yet. The training programs and the number of training initiatives are scheduled to be coming out this July. It is really early. We can have that discussion with the developer as to if they plan to hold true to their word. I expect them to do so. They have listed a number of contractors. In the area of transportation and gravel hauling, they have listed eight. Did they hire the one that the Member is raising or did they hire another one on the list? I have to go back and confirm that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Minister brought up the question about the list, because the list that you provided to us, I talked to the majority of those people on that list and they are not getting any work from this contract. I think it is important to realize that you have contracts there where, basically, camps were supposed to be supplied. They are not being used. You have people that basically are coming in from other parts of Canada which are being housed in the principal residence of the contractor, but yet they are not using what is listed in the contract. That is the point here. I think

that we have to do a better job of assessing this contract. It is $100 million. There should be some scrutiny in regards to how this contract is being managed and handled but, more importantly, ensure that the benefits flow to the residents of the Northwest Territories and local contractors.

I would like to ask the Minister again: Are you going to file a report and update us on the first phase of this project for $6 million? How many of those dollars were basically flown into the Northwest Territories and how many exited the Northwest Territories for southern contractors?

Mr. Speaker, so far all the contractor has done is put in the pilings and started some of the early construction work. This is the first construction season. We are barely off the ground. It would be difficult to file a report. I would be glad to come back at the end of this construction season and provide an update to all the members through committee or specifically to this Member, if that is required. I think it is very early to start filing a report of what the contractor has used. It has only been maybe two or three significant contracts let so far. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, when we start getting phone calls from people that basically are trying to acquire work on these jobsites and being told, sorry, you have to phone up a company out of Whitehorse to acquire work in the Northwest Territories, I believe there is something wrong with the system where a Yukon company can manage a project in the Northwest Territories and this government doesn’t seem to do anything about it. I would like to ask the Minister again: Will you ensure that those companies which are listed in regards to the subcontractors on this project, this site, and see exactly how much benefit are they receiving regardless if it is the first phase of the project or the last phase? I think we learned from the Deh Cho Bridge. We will put the pillars in and then we will design it later. It does not work in regards to a $100 million scope.

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure it is a fair comment to make. There is only one fabricator that…or the closest one that could do it was in Whitehorse. They, in turn, are going to subcontract to the welding companies in Inuvik. They have a poster. It hasn’t even closed yet and the Member is stating that there is nobody hired. Well, give it time. It has to come to conclusion here. They are offering to hire the welding companies. They are offering to hire welders that are in the community. I don’t know. The project is scheduled to start down the road in a couple of weeks. We can certainly provide and talk to the developer and get what will end up happening. I can’t give him that

information until we see this come to a point where they have actually hired everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement, of course I don’t know every detail of what this constituent’s concern was who felt it necessary to call MLAs and talk about the situation, but I do know that we require fairness and transparency in the way that our government spends public money. When the Inuvik school project came before this House for approval, we were told that to negotiate a contract of this magnitude was a good thing to sole source it, because it would ensure NWT northern content in this project. On that premise, we bought into this. I would like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services, after a contract like this is awarded, what process or mechanism is there in place to ensure the continuation of monitoring of the work as it progresses to ensure that the spirit and the intent of the negotiated contract is lived up to? What recourse do people have if they feel that they were going to have an opportunity to participate through a tender or through being named on that original list, and if that is not lived up to, what recourse do those folks have? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad the Member raises this question, because there has been a number of meetings, public and some private discussions with our people and with contractors in the community on this initiative. There is a list of companies that have been selected by the developer from the community. There is more than 20 listed on this list. They are also working with Arctic College to do training. They have a market development list. They are trying really hard to ensure all the work stays local.

I would expect that, as we go along, we are going to hear issues come forward. We will raise them with them. We have already done so on a number of other issues and claims that have been filed. As we move forward, we want them to stick to the agreement that they have. We believe they are. It is quite interesting that the person complaining is a regular contractor to this developer. If he is not getting work, I would certainly be interested to see why they didn’t hire him. We will follow up on that. At this point I don’t know why that specific individual

is not hired as he is a regular subcontractor to the developer.

We certainly stay, on a continual basis, in contact with this project. We have people on the ground. We are quite familiar with what is happening on a day-to-day basis. Again, I have to mention that it is very early in this project. It is difficult to start saying, well, this company didn’t get a contract. Some of these are just coming out. Thank you.

Just so that we understand then, once the contract is awarded to the developer, as the Minister calls him -- and there was a list provided, say, with 20 companies on there who are going to be participating with that developer to deliver this project for the Government of the Northwest Territories -- is there any tendering that goes on within that process or is that, once the main contract is negotiated, is everything that is subcontracted beneath that all negotiated as well or is there actually a requirement for any tendering for the initial award? Thank you.

As we move through the negotiated process, most of the costs have been provided by…would be specified companies on the subtrades. I don’t believe very many areas would go to a tender. It is my understanding that these are already fairly well set, and in this instance it was recognized that this is a service they can’t get for fabrication as there is no certified shop in Inuvik. So it’s kind of an understanding that they would go to the closest provider and that’s what they’ve done. Thank you.