Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will attest that this will not be the last time that I will be discussing this topic during my term in office. This topic is how this government has and is dealing with its procurement guidelines, negotiated contracts and sole-sourcing arrangements. What makes this so bitterly sweet is that my questions later today are for the very Minister whom not that long ago was the MLA champion of such nonsense, but we’ll come back to that in a couple of minutes.

It’s come to my attention via some very concerned businesses in my riding and the riding of Kam Lake that the Department of Transportation has entered into some preliminary negotiations with a group of proponents for the contract of the Giant Mine

Bypass Road Project. What’s interesting is that this project was being fast-tracked and only recently, due to some pressure by some of the businesses not invited to the dance, has now gone back to the department and Minister for option consideration. I find that interesting.

Is it wrong for a business to be considered for a project? Is it wrong for a business to ask for an opportunity to do business for the public with the use of public funds and a transparent environment? We think not. I think the proper phrase people use here is opportunity, not exclusivity, as it pertains to one being faced against a negotiated or sole-sourced situation; a situation that happens all too often in the history of past Assemblies.

In the end I can stand here and quote the various passages in the GNWT procurement guidelines and procedures manual or I can use fancy terminology like negotiated contract, which really means sole-sourcing, or terms like building competitive capacity, which I think should be called government market disruption program. I won’t stand here and regurgitate such a leading and misunderstood contracting process. Instead I wish to leave the Members here today with a statement, one of many statements that repeated itself countless times in Hansard and one that one could really not tally up, and a statement that might seem very familiar to a certain Minister here today as these are his words as a Regular Member: “When you do go to a sole-sourced way of acquiring goods and services, the transparency and accountability take a back seat. The people of the Northwest Territories deserve a better way of doing things. We are stewards of public funds and we can’t forget that fact.” I couldn’t agree more.

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

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize former Behchoko resident Peter Beggair who is here with us.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the former Member for Mackenzie Delta, David Krutko.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of Yellowknife Centre, the former Member for Mackenzie Delta and a guy that

could out-talk everybody in this Assembly, and certainly a guy who knows a heck of a lot of the goings on in the Northwest Territories, the one and only Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity one more time to recognize my constituency assistant Maia Lepage, doing great work here at the Assembly this week.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I’d like to welcome all visitors in the public gallery here today who are taking an interest in our proceedings. Thank you and welcome. Item 7, acknowledgements. Item 8, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. How does moving elders from the Mackenzie Delta communities to Inuvik for long-term care fit with the government’s priority to foster healthy and independent communities?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu. Members, Mr. Beaulieu has the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The closure of the Joe Greenland building coincides with the government’s plan to provide long-term care where the care can be provided best, where there were services available with doctors and nurses and so on. However, with the closure of the Joe Greenland building, the department has increased their support for elders in the community as well.

Is the Minister willing to at least review the decision to end long-term care at the Joe Greenland Centre and come up with a plan that meets the needs of elders in the delta communities?

The department is always looking at better ways to provide services to the elders in the communities. An example is coinciding with the closure of the Joe Greenland Centre in Fort McPherson, we’ve upgraded the services that are being provided to the elders in – I’m sorry, not Fort McPherson but, rather, Aklavik. We used to do 139 visits annually and we’ve increased those visits to almost 700 visits to the elders and we added a

nurse to work with home care and one licensed practical nurse as well.

At this time I have no further questions.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement today, it seems that we have a gap in our procurement policies. Standing offer agreements can be offered to firms who can then turn around and subcontract southern companies to do work here in the Northwest Territories. I’m not sure if it’s the Minister for which the work that I’m referring to is being done or if it’s someone else on the other side that’s responsible for this policy on standing offer agreements. I would like to know why standing offer agreements do not uphold the same standard of northern content that other contracts do.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That certainly is something that I believe the government can take a look at on the standing offer agreements. The situation that the Member speaks about in Hay River has been dealt with by departmental officials sitting down with the individual to get a better understanding of when that equipment was procured by that company. Hopefully going forward that company will be involved in any future procurement that requires that type of equipment in the South Slave.

One of the features of a standing offer agreement is that it’s in place for a period of time. Can the Minister tell us if standing offer agreements are usually in place for one year or for longer? Because I do appreciate that Mr. Dean has made the department now aware of his equipment, and his capacity and his ability to do this kind of work, but how long before an engineering company can be taken – not taken to task, that’s the wrong word – can be held to account for making sure that they subcontract to northern contractors?