Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the things that I wanted to let committee know in terms of looking at how many contracts, I know there has been a lot of focus on northern businesses. Looking at some of the metrics, I wanted to give the committee some of the reflection on that. Last year, in terms of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, in terms of our contracts for construction maintenance, architecture, and engineering services, anything valued at over $500,000, we had 45 contracts that were awarded at about $95 million for construction maintenance and A and E services. Of those 45 contracts, 39 of them were awarded to northern businesses. So approximately 87 percent went to northern businesses at a value of $78 million, that is 82 percent; 31 of those contracts were awarded to BIP-registered companies, 71 percent.
Six of those contracts were awarded to southern firms. The reason why is we did not receive any bids from any northern companies for those six, and those were contracts for services that we couldn't get here, looking at water treatment plants. We had one with the Trout River Bridge rehabilitation, as well as some highway stripping and sealing, coating services.
Again, looking at that, we continually have the reflection of making sure that northern businesses, and especially during this time, I have asked our procurement staff to make sure that I have regular reports on how many northern businesses are actually getting our contracts, but, again, for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, we are looking at about 87 percent that are going to northern businesses. Thank you, Madam Chair.