Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it became evident that this contract was going to be delayed, the Power Corporation looked at its various options. As I mentioned yesterday, to compensate for the lack of delivery, it was agreed with the vendor that they would cover any additional costs, including the cost of modular rental units that were brought into Jackfish in the winter of 2017 to ensure reliability. Because this bid was the lowest bidder, it was thought best to stick with this bid as that would be the best, in the long term, for the ratepayers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that the Minister has indicated that the company would essentially have to cover any costs incurred. It has been 24 hours since I asked this question yesterday, something along the lines of: what costs have been incurred since the delay of receiving these generators? The Minister indicated yesterday that there have been some rental costs for some backup generators of some sort. I am expecting that there are others costs. If this company is expected to pay those costs, has the Minister yet determined what those incurred costs are?

In the brief time since yesterday afternoon, no, I have not ascertained what those costs will be, but I am looking into it.

I would like to ask the Minister: what kind of “validating” does the Power Corporation do? What kind of assessment does it take when it is trying to evaluate suppliers or manufacturers that they use? I ask this question because, clearly, there were two other bidders in this proposal that are on this project that are well-known, larger, reputable Canadian companies. Their bids were very close to each other. I would like to ask the Minister: what kind of criteria do they use to determine what manufacturers they are going to choose to use?

As mentioned previously, Mr. Speaker, the vendor chosen, Virdi, had the lowest bid. It was significantly lower than the next bidder, and it was the best overall score in the evaluations. There was a careful evaluation made of the three admittedly competent bidders. We went with the best bidders. We went with the best bid.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes “significantly lower” will raise a red flag. It has in the past, and that should have been a red flag, quite frankly. Something, Mr. Speaker, that I would like to ask the Minister is: given that there is an obvious delay in getting these generators, given that there appear to be some incurred costs and given that, since there has been significant time that has passed and the Canadian dollar has devalued in that time. Does the Minister believe that it is possible that the all-in cost, once we get these in-house and turnkey, that they will actually end up costing than the next bidder's cost would have been? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, obviously, that is to be determined, but I am not expecting that that would be the case. As mentioned earlier, Virdi, the bidder, the successful bidder, will compensate for the additional costs that I mentioned earlier, so we are still expecting this contract to be well under the other bids.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a week ago, the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation signed an agreement with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation leadership about social housing. I am not questioning the need for the housing dollars, but I have some questions around the details of this arrangement.

I am aware that about a third of the new money will replace units destroyed by fire. Will the rest of the money add to the housing stock in the ISR so that there are more units in total than there are now? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The partnership that we have developed with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation is a partnership in that the Housing Corporation provides the land and will take over the ownership of the units for rental purposes, but the IRC is responsible for building the units and determining where they want to go. The current funding, the $5 million, will be used to replace a six-plex in Inuvik and a four-plex in Tuktoyaktuk that were burned from fire. The $10 million that is coming next, we have not negotiated on. Again, it is not the Housing Corporation's prerogative to be able to tell the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation what to do. It will be up to them to decide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Minister. The Minister and the Housing Corporation have been very diligent about not allowing for an increase in the number of units within the Housing Corporation stock because of the increased operations and maintenance costs that come with extra units, so will the Minister accept extra units if that is what the IRC decides to do with its money?

The Member is correct in that, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we do get funded for 2,400 public housing units. The CMHC funding is going to dissolve in 2038. We are trying to develop a plan to deal with the lack of funding that we will have for operating and maintenance for 2,400 units. So, at this point, we are not looking at increasing our public housing stock, but we are looking at and we're hoping that, with the program renewal, we will be able transfer some of the current units into more home ownership. That way we can actually increase our public housing availability at the same time. No, this will not be all on the shoulders of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

This money provides for IRC beneficiaries, but I am wondering how the Housing Corporation is planning to meet the needs of the other residents of the Beaufort Delta who are waiting for housing, that is, other beneficiaries and other non-Indigenous people?

The deal with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to provide them $15 million was not a Government of the Northwest Territories decision. It was a federal decision. We had no input into that. The Government of the Northwest Territories was not consulted in that process, so we can't determine what the federal government did with that or where they are going to move in the future.

However, what I can say is that, for the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, we take care of the needs of all residents within the Northwest Territories. So just because the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation struck a special deal with the federal government, that does not mean that we neglected all of the other communities. We are still providing housing support in all communities, to meet all people's needs.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that response. My final question is about quality control. Since one entity is doing the building and another is providing for the O and M, what kind of quality control will be exercised over this project and by whom? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to stress that the agreement for the $15 million is not in consultation with the Government of the Northwest Territories. It was done directly with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. They could determine what they wanted to do with the whole funding. We have developed a partnership. Within that partnership, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has agreed to make sure that the buildings are done to code. We have agreement that we will be confirming that, as well. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation does have the capacity. This corporation does have economic development within their organization, and they have been doing buildings. This is not their first project, so I am assuming that their quality of work will remain as it always has been.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of this, and I don't think there is any ill intent on behalf of Canada, I believe, once they realize that they would be contravening a section of the Treasury Board rules to rollover the money. My understanding is they are taking steps to find a solution for this. As we know more, I will share that with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I am aware that there is provision in the agreement for the federal government to go to the Treasury Board to resolve this on a permanent basis, but there is a way for them to address the issue right now, and that is just simply to increase the contribution agreement for the next year by the amount that was unspent in the previous year. That would allow for, essentially, a carryover. I guess I would like to know from the Minister what he believes are the next steps that he and his staff will take to get implementation of this key feature of the agreement back on track?