I have noted what the Member has said and his concerns with the Rae Access Road. I have to apologize; I didn't quite catch your question. I do commit that, obviously, we're going to do lessons learned. That's a big part of the engineering world and I know you're probably going to get sick of, just as much as you get sick of the Premier's saying she's a social worker, you may get sick of me saying I'm engineer after a while, but that is the engineering process, to go back and look at our past ones and see what we've done wrong. Clearly the Member has a feeling and believes that we've done wrong when it comes to the TASR and the way that the Rae Access Road comes. I commit to you that I'm listening to what you have to say, and all of those lessons learned, because I don't want to be sitting in the House again or be having that conversation again with the Tlicho chiefs. I commit to learn the lessons from these projects and do better and do differently going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Masi, Madam Chair. Obviously, I would just like to have a clear dialogue with the department. Obviously, we've learned from TASR, we've learned from Tlicho All Season Road. This Rae Access Road, if we didn't meet the public tender, would still be out there. Obviously, it would have gotten even worse from my leadership. I'm glad the Premier and Minister met with us to deal with that. It shouldn't come to that, that's what I'm saying. We should have a concrete written agreement with such agreements, similar to what the Member for Kam Lake is alluding to, that there is 80 percent going to northern contracts. Is that written in stone within a contract? I know the contracts are different and a different calibre of the whole Northwest Territories. I'm just wondering, Madam Chair, if it is written in such a way that the Northerners are benefitting? I know that TASR, there is a certain percentage. To my knowledge, it is low, but that was negotiated before us in last fall before the elections. With this new access road and Tlicho Bridge that's coming, I want to be prepared for that. Is there any set agreement on numbers? That's what I'm after, Madam Chair. Masi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, you're right, every contract is going to be different. I do recognize that, if we don't change the language in our contracts, we're just going to keep letting people game the system, which is what's happening. That's when you see the cutting of the cheque or, you know, the bait and switch of, "oh, we've got these people" and then, "oh, now we've got the contract we're going to hire these people." All of those types of situations are things that I'm pretty aware of and alive to and part of my motivations for getting into this seat in the first place. All parts of the conversations that we're having, I would actually like to offer that you do come and have the conversation with me and my department and we discuss what you want to see for the Tlicho, I'm going to start calling it, the Frank Channel Bridge when we get that funding, et cetera. I would say, yes, come to us. Let's have that conversation and make sure that, when we go forward the next time, it's not in a manner where you're going to be upset or it's not meeting the needs of your people, or the Member's people. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Once we get the funding, not when, once we get the funding. We will get the funding, I'm hoping. Madam Chair, just maybe one more question. Other expected projects, we talk about asset management and planning design of buildings. There has been discussion and we met with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on a Behchoko school. It's been four months now, I think we met, I believe, in January. I'm just wondering if this an opportunity to discuss that, because it is part of asset management. I'm just wondering on the status. If Members or staff don't have any information, I would love to get some information later on, as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This would be under ECE's department. They are a client group of Infrastructure, but it is under their department for those conversations. I know that Minister Simpson was just very nice to let me know that they haven't reached out to the chiefs yet, and perhaps that's going to be coming soon but I can't speak for ECE. We can, again, maybe have another conversation outside of the Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Are there other questions under asset management? Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the highway systems, the design, I expect that they've looked at all the highways in the Territories and have done some assessment and prioritized them as to which ones have to be looked at first? My concern is that Highway 1, from the border to Enterprise and also Highway 2, from Enterprise into Hay River, there hasn't really been any realignment or any widening in the last number of years. I know that because once in a while I ride my bicycle to the border. There is not much there for a shoulder. We have a number of trucks [microphone turned off] and we're lucky we haven't had any major accidents. A month or so ago, or a few weeks ago, they blocked off, for instance, the access to the Alexander Falls and parking area. People then were parking on the highway, which was a safety issue, and that got resolved fairly quickly. I guess I would like to know and I would like to see something done with those sections of the highway, because nothing has been done in a while and they are important to the big trucks heading into the mines and into Yellowknife. We have got to do something sooner than later on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As part of that project matrix that I was talking about earlier, all the highways are included in that. Yes, we do look at ranking them and determining which ones need repair and rehabilitation sooner rather than later. We can definitely commit to looking at the particular areas that you are looking at. We do have a published highways report that could be, if the Member wants more information you can access that. I'm definitely willing to take those suggestions back and we can look at where those pieces of infrastructure fall into the planning for the department and when we might see them realistically being addressed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The other thing is with respect to contracts. In the past, the contracts, years ago, they used to be broken down and then we kind of start combining them together and making them bigger. What that did was discourage northern contractors, the smaller ones, from bidding and not getting work. Has the department looked at possibly breaking those contracts down, or the way they're putting the contracts out, to ensure that small businesses, small contractors, can pick up some of the work on their own? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's funny because, as you say that to me, I have contractors in different areas of the territory that tell me, "Stop breaking down contracts. I don't want bid on just providing a loader." Again, a very complex situation, which I think we do have to look at as a case-by-case situation. I was joking with someone earlier that it would be easier if the all the contractors would just get together and come to me with all the portions of the project that they have agreed upon to work on, but that is not going to happen. I do recognize that that is a function of what my department needs to do, is taking at a realistic look at the capacities within a region and seeing, okay, if we carve out certain parts of this project, we will get more companies working, but it will have to be, I believe, project by project. We can't make a statement overall that we are going to have one guy providing the loader, one guy providing the pickup truck. Sorry, I know you are not talking to that degree, but definitely we will take that back because one of the things that is happening is we do have large infrastructure projects coming that do need to have a certain calibre or certain types of skill sets that we do not have in the Northwest Territories.

This is again part of that entire procurement review that we are starting, underway between the departments. It's part of the mandates of the 19^th Assembly, was to maximize benefits to northern business, Indigenous business. We are looking at Indigenous procurement options and what we can do now to ensure that more Northerners are working because all of the companies are coming to me, saying, "We don't want a handout. We don't want a wage. We want work." So that is a message that is resonating really loudly with me and I am taking back to my departments. Thank you, Madam Chair

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Basically, that is what I have been hearing, too, is that contractors want to work because, if they are taking loans and they are taking deferrals and that, really they are just putting themselves further in debt, and that does not help their survival. The other area is in engineering opportunities. We have a number of larger engineering firms here in the territories, but we also have in Hay River a smaller one. It was born here in the North. It was born in Hay River, and it is owned by local people, but again, there they have problems trying to compete because they might say, "Well, we don't have this or we don't have a land surveyor or we may not have a geotech person," but they do have access to those types of people.

I would like to see, I guess, somehow that we can ensure that those smaller firms as well have an opportunity to bid on the work and allow them to build some capacity to grow bigger, as well. The other problem I have, too, is that, when we talk about not having capacity here, if we are putting contracts out and if we see that maybe some of the same contractors are always getting the work, then we have to get some buy-in or we have to somehow force them to relocate here or set up an office. We cannot just allow them to pick up a contract and operate down south. There has got to be something for us here in the Northwest Territories. If they are not willing to do it, we have to look at how we are going to approach that and how we can change that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

I think the Member makes really good points, all things that I have considered. I am in one of the engineering companies that does not have the people to bid on something. Another part that we see often is, as stated, the downturn in Alberta occurred. We had a lot of people who started to buy work in the North. That is a problem, and that is again, I guess, back to the negotiated contract versus the RFP-type conversation, because I cannot go out and tell a company not to lower their rates of their employees to win a job. So I understand that that has to now be coming back into the RFP and how we are writing that and how we are scoring people and holding people accountable when they are proposing to put certain people on projects but also building in the training capacities, like you talk about.

I think, as we move to more virtual business anyway, it will be very hard to force people to open up brick and mortar offices in the North, but I totally know what the Member is saying, and it's all part of the conversation that we are having as part of the procurement review and part of a larger conversation that we are having as a Cabinet in the sense of not just looking at dollar for dollar but looking at those intangible or indirect benefits of, you know, if we spend the $200,000 with the northern company, well, that saves 10 employees from going on unemployment, so are we going to start factoring in that amount of money for IA into the change in that bid? I mean, we cannot do that in the bid scoring, but we need to start changing the mentality so that we recognize that the lowest bid is not always the right bid or the best bid. Most engineers will fight for quality-based selection, where you don't even start talking about money until you have actually made it through the technical bid and you've chosen a firm to negotiate with.

Unfortunately, I think, with the way our financials are set up, it will not work. Because we do not start until April, we miss our field season, and that is actually a good point I should make on procurement with contracts. Because of the setup of the money not coming till April, it really forces the Department of Infrastructure to have to do stuff very, very quickly because our client departments are not coming to us until they have their funding, to say, "I want to build this project." All of a sudden, we are finding out in May we need to start building projects this summer, and, a lot of that, it gets delayed. I saw it in my own work, and I have to think it's impacting the entire departments overall. I had a conversation with someone, "It would be great to shift to January-January," because then we'd actually have four months of winter to plan what we are doing in the summer. I think that does add to some of this problem that is occurring. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess for businesses in the North, you know, we are always concerned that people will say they are charging too much, but the cost of doing business here and having a brick and mortar here is costly. We are paying higher rates all around. Somehow we expect that BIP is going to take that into account, and it does somewhat but not fully. Now we are not taking into account the downturn in the economy down south. There is a cost to that. How do we include that when we are putting tenders out there? That is why I think it's very important that we deal with BIP as soon as we can and do some changes to it because it's a powerful tool; it could be a powerful tool for us. It's been good, but with the economy the way it is in the South, it does not give us the advantage it used to. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister, a short answer.