I agree with the Member that projects like these are much needed in the Northwest Territories, and we’d be quite pleased to meet with Mr. Lewis and I’ll direct our senior officials to contact him immediately and set up a meeting with him.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Before I go to Mr. Yakeleya for oral questions, the Chair distinctly heard some comments from the Member for Mackenzie Delta in his last line of questioning that were clearly unparliamentary to the Chair. I will ask the Member for Mackenzie Delta if he’s prepared to withdraw the remarks from the House and apologize to the House. Mr. Krutko.

I apologize.

Could you please withdraw your remarks, Mr. Krutko?

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my remarks and I apologize.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Transportation some questions on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I understand that the Minister met with some western Transportation Ministers and I wonder if they had any discussion on the National Transportation Policy on this dream of many people in the valley in terms of having some more concrete realities, I guess I could say, in terms of putting the steel to the ground to open up the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I know there were some project description reports done and I think we’re close to going to the second level.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did have the opportunity to have a discussion in a formal setting with the Westec members in Vancouver on Friday. We also had the opportunity to meet privately with Minister Strahl. We had a very good discussion. We wanted to take the occasion to bring forward the desire of this House to ensure the Minister is aware that we place a lot of priority on the Mackenzie Valley Highway and we also wanted to ensure that the Members of Westec are aware of our desire to move forward. We also had the opportunity to talk about other projects that were in the mix, and some applications that we had forwarded we are looking for some updates.

I want to ask the Minister, there’s support from this House and several industries across Canada and the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister if, when he had his discussion with Minister Strahl, can the Minister inform the House if in his discussions with Minister Strahl he came to why the federal government is not supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway by putting serious dollars to build it even after the PDRs that we pretty well closed. Why isn’t the federal government supporting this?

At this point I don’t believe that there’s any indication that the federal government is not supporting the project. I think many of the Members are aware that it’s a high priority for the people of the Northwest Territories. We try to have those kind of remarks pried out of the Minister. At this point he’s indicated that we’d have to wait to see what the federal budget announces, if there’s anything there. We followed and worked with the Minister over the last several months to ensure that he’s very familiar with this project. We’ve taken this recommendation that we direct our requests in writing to the federal Minister. We’ve done that. I think at this juncture we just have to wait and see what comes up in the budget.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope the Minister can work with him more in terms of the priority here in the North of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I want to ask the Minister, I know the Premier and Cabinet have made some other recommendations to the Norman Wells initiative on funding the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Can the Minister inform the House if other options have been exhausted? We’re actually begging the federal Minister to put some dollars so that we can have that highway, so that we can reduce the cost of living and strengthen the sovereignty of the Northwest Territories. Does the Minister have any more tricks up his sleeves to put more dollars to this highway?

I think most Members of Cabinet and Members of this government have really been very straightforward with the federal Minister. He’s talked with a number of people; my Cabinet colleagues for sure. He understands where the priority lies with this government on the Mackenzie Valley Highway. He’s worked with us to fund some of the projects, the PDR work that’s necessary to compile all the backup information and baseline studies that are required. He allowed us to move forward more than any other government in our history on this project. I don’t know if there’s any way to make that any clearer. I’ve tried to be at all the federal meetings that he’s at, and every meeting I’ve gone to he’s been very good to us. He’s allowed us a separate side-table

meeting in a private room to talk about issues that are challenging us and this is always number one. He’s certainly got the message. At this point I think it’s more in the Finance Minister’s hands rather than Minister Strahl, but that is something we won’t know until the budget is released.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment regarding the Minister responsible for BIP and also under the negotiating contracting guidelines. Part of the guidelines requires that there be an annual reporting of these contracts. I’d like to ask the Minister if his department has worked with the contracting departments to ensure we’re complying with the negotiating contracting guidelines and ensuring that those reports are done annually.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Executive is responsible for negotiating contract guidelines and for reporting on negotiated contracts.

It was my understanding that the Department of ITI is responsible for implementing the guidelines to ensure that the completion of those reports are filed and done on a quarterly or annual basis as part of the contracts that are let by way of negotiated contracts. Can the Minister assure me that those reports will be available to myself and anyone who requires them?

We prepare an annual report of contracts over $5,000, and I would be quite pleased to present that report to the Member. Thank you.

Maybe I can ask the Minister if he can check in regard to the negotiating contracting guidelines that clearly stipulates that there has to be annual reporting on those contracts on each additional year in regard to the type of employment, the number of northern hires, training, and also ensuring that the commitments made in those contracts, the negotiated contracts, are fulfilled. I’d just like to ask the Minister if he can check in his department under the guidelines to ensure that the guidelines are being followed. Thank you.

The negotiated contract guidelines require that for every negotiated contract, the department issuing the negotiated contract is to file a report as to exactly the benefits

the employment created, and that is filed with Cabinet. I will check for the Member to see if a list of negotiated contracts are put in a report and filed, and if they are, I will make sure that the Member gets a copy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.