Mr. O'Reilly, your time is up, but seeing no one else on my list, I will let you continue.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not really sure I have much else to say. I was trying to get it all within my time frame there. But once again, I do thank the Minister for his responses. I look forward to the information he has committed to provide. I'm glad he has agreed to have an inspector go out and check out the site, Mactung, for liabilities and I look forward to working with the Minister and this particular division to make sure that we have our devolution house in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. But I’m worried about what is going to happen with Prairie Creek as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is more a question or comment on process, but my understanding is that, notwithstanding the excellent exchange of questions between the Minister and the Member for Frame Lake, special warrants are not something that this House need approve. They are already at the discretion of the Financial Management Board or Executive Council. I’m just wondering if there is any further requirement to address this by this committee.

It's my understanding that we need agreement, and I’m allowing Members to make comments if they wish. Mr. Testart.

That's fair. I guess I object to that special warrant existing in here, because, even if we disagree, the money is still allocated. It's more a comment on process. I recognize that it is a change to debate and talk about it, but there are other avenues for that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Finance Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair,

a decision had to be made on this, and there was a timeline attached to it so the decision was made to use a special warrant. As far as special warrants go, in future, with your indulgence I will have Mr. Aumond speak to that.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Testart.

Thanks for the clarification of process. I think that is a much better option than the current approach. Nothing further, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Can the Finance Minister please explain to me why we bought it and why we did not allow them to use the bids? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair,

we decided to purchase it because the bids that came in were all very low. They were very low. We then purchased the property, and Canada agreed to be responsible for the remediation. Should the price of tungsten ever rise, we are sitting on a piece of property that could potentially be worth a few dollars. That's why the decision was made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm still a little confused why we would actually not allow somebody else to purchase it, to invest and work it, deal with this mine. We are just holding it and waiting for tungsten to go up. I'm still trying to figure out why we as a government would not just allow a company to purchase it and try to manufacture it from there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If I understand this correctly, the Government of Canada said, “If you don't buy it, you are going to get stuck with the responsibility to look after the other mine and the issues with it”?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair,

Canada's position is that, if we didn't take best efforts to sell the property, then my belief was we were going to be responsible for the liabilities, so we had to make best efforts. We weren't pleased with the prices that came back. Canada wasn't pleased with the prices that came back. As a government, we made the decision that we would purchase the property, knowing that if we did, then Canada would be responsible for the remediation of the property, then if there is an opportunity, if the price of tungsten goes up, then we would move that property.