Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the past I’ve brought this issue forward to the House. It’s an issue of contracting where our Public Works and Government Services has allowed someone to help them develop a tender, but at the same time they subsequently allow them to bid on the tender, and on a few occasions they have won the tender. The first one I’m going to note is when the water treatment program up in the North here had issued five contracts for water treatment. I had felt at the time that that was an unfair process that wasn’t open and honest. I’m concerned that another issue has come before me on my desk regarding another tender where a business in Yellowknife is concerned that somebody the government has used to help develop the tender process then went on and bid on the tender, and they won it.

Mr. Speaker, what’s becoming clear here is there’s a sort of unfair advantage being proposed by allowing the person who helps develop the tender and then to certainly turn around and bid on the tender. That may be perfectly legal, but it certainly doesn’t pass the smell test of what is perceived as fair.

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister of Public Works is: What is he prepared to do to ensure that we have clear guidelines for anybody who helps prepare a tender to ensure that they’re shown and treated in the same way, in a fair manner, than somebody who wasn’t involved in the development of that tender so there’s no unfair advantage?