Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Member’s concerns in this regard. It should be made clear that the local businesses were given all preferential treatment available under our government policies to support northern businesses. With all that considered for about a $250,000 contract, there was a difference of over $100,000. So there was quite a substantial difference in the prices and, secondly, it should be made clear that while we are having discussions about government policies, it’s really important to make sure that we don’t suggest that any staff has done anything wrong. Stanton staff have been under attack in the House and I have to tell you that all government rules were followed and especially in this contract process.

Mr. Speaker, I believe it’s a legitimate discussion for us to discuss what more could we do to give preferential treatment to northern businesses, but for this contract all the rules were followed, the staff did all the right things and if the Member suggests that maybe we should give everything to a request for proposal, we could do that, but that’s a separate issue.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that this was handled as a tender because that’s how it was done previously. This was not a new process. They were not looking for new ideas. It was a northern business that earned this contract last time as a tender and so it went out as a tender for the second time. Thank you.