Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, I've definitely had the opportunity to work with several of the technical people in the department, and I do agree. I just know that yeah, as stated it is competitive and one where we wear a lot of liability. I think it's an area where you can't just sort of say it's the general issue with, you know, recruitment because you can't just put warm bodies into these positions. So it is something that I think the department really needs to start getting a grasp on. And given also too that I'm not sure where we're at from the recruitment or sort of the graduation rates of engineers, but I don't believe things are really picking up that we're really graduating a lot more engineers in Canada. So I think that's just one that I'll leave but follow up later.
When the -- I hear the deputy -- or sorry, the assistant deputy minister talking about working with the private sector, and I note that there are $3.328 million of contract services that will be coming up, I have a couple concerns there. I think that the GNWT in all departments has a tendency to find one consultant at a time that they really like, and it's much easier to generally deal with one company so therefore there isn't always an impetus to break those contracts up or to find other people that could do them. When I hear and have raised concerns in this House about per diems that are paid on some of these projects by these consultants, and I've not had any resolution to it in three years, and it's the government's favourite consultant for all of their technical design work, I have a lot of concern there. I believe there's an issue with contracting out of this department towards people that are friends of high-up bureaucrats as well as Ministers in this Cabinet. And so I really don't feel there has been a good handle on ensuring that procurement here has been fair and is being done through proper free trade routes.
That being said, I would like an answer as to why they've signed off on a $70 per diem for workers of the Northwest Territories on specifically projects in Inuvik and flood management, which I know is not this department. Thank you.