I guess the manufacturing policy, if there's a 25 percent value-added is the indication, and the information I've been given is that the value of this tender was 70 percent of manufacturing and the truck was only 30 percent of the cost.

The department has bought plow trucks from a northern manufacturer before. How does this company not get on a manufacturing list? How does the Department of Transportation not support northern manufacturing?

I don't understand the concept, because the Department of Transportation had plow trucks built in the North by northern manufacturers before, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI made a statement about manufacturing and the GNWT's support of manufacturing in the Northwest Territories. I guess one of the problems I have is that I'm not seeing that in real life. I have a question for the Minister of Transportation today.

In October the Department of Transportation issued a tender to have a plow truck manufactured in the South. It was given to a northern contractor, but all the work is being done in the South.

Can the Minister of Transportation indicate why this tender was issued? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Rick Groenewegen, one of my constituents and a hardworking businessman in Hay River. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It being the last day, I thought I'd take a simple project, but actually not that simple. I'd like to talk about the Business Incentive Policy and manufacturing policy. The Minister just spoke about supporting manufacturing.

The policy requires that people who are on the list have to do 25 percent of value-added and their pricing has to be within 20 to 25 percent of the cost of the product as compared to other areas.

We have a list of manufacturers. We've had this list since 1996. As a Member here for the last three and a half years, I've been fighting constantly to get this manufacturing policy recognized. Most of the people on this list are fighting on a constant basis to get their business and their products recognized by the GNWT. The Minister and the government say they represent and support northern business, but yet we have to continue to fight every process, every way, and every difficulty.

We have people who are manufacturing things in the Northwest Territories, employing people in the Northwest Territories, but we continue to have to fight every tender. We have to keep an eye on the tender process to make sure that tender process is being followed, and to make sure that these people who are on the manufacturing policy list are not even supposed to have to tender. The product is supposed to be brought to them. We've been fighting constantly for this.

This policy is so convoluted that we actually have manufacturers in the Northwest Territories - we have one in Enterprise - that manufactures cabinets in the Northwest Territories, but he's not on this list. They haven't been on this list since the company started over a decade ago.

The manufacturing policy needs to be enforced and every department that buys products and services needs to know about this.

I see the Minister talked about advertising. The advertising doesn't need to be done in the Northwest Territories; it needs to be done in our own bureaucracy. It's very convoluted, it's not being followed, and we need to continue, we need to support northern manufacturing so we can create more jobs in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Ted Blondin, a Lethbridge alumni and a good friend from going to university in Lethbridge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to get all of the questions in because there are a lot of issues that we deal with as Regular Members here on this side. I guess my question would be concerning funding.

Has the department or the Minister looked at the funding that we give to seniors, whether it’s through senior groups, whether it’s through fuel subsides? Are we looking at expanding funding that we give to seniors?

My question is about that committee. Does that committee get together on a regular basis to talk about seniors along with the

Minister responsible for Seniors, to actually just sit down and discuss, or do they come up just on specific topics? Does this group get together regularly regarding seniors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I could have asked this question to several Ministers, as the Minister indicated, but my question to the Minister responsible for Seniors is: What is the connection? Is there a committee that gets all the departments together that are linking seniors together that have seniors issues, whether it’s the Department of Finance for taxation, whether it’s Health, whether it’s MACA, whether it’s Housing? Is there a group of people who get together and discuss seniors specifically? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.