Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not too sure how much more I can add to Mr. Bromley’s statement. I think he said it very well. It gave us all the information that we need to go ahead and make a decision on this.

Being new to the government, it is just something that I assumed that this government was working on and taking care of, and to be in here now and make these changes and be part of it, I am very honoured to help work on taking this initiative through.

Early childhood zero to three years old, Mr. Bromley hit it right on the head with the brain and biological developments, the language, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a lot of my colleagues have mentioned, the importance of early childhood in the ages zero to three. If we don’t put our services and our investments into this initiative, we’re going to be failing our students as they progress in life, as they get into middle school, elementary school and as seniors. We don’t have to look too far to see our graduation rates of the NWT as well as the money that we’re going to be putting into inclusive schooling here.

I want to speak to a specific issue. We know that programs are needed just as much as space facilities for our children...

Thank you. I just want to make a comment that the Minister did say that there were those projects coming forward and they’re not particularly in this fund, that they’re in another line item. Now he’s saying he has to look for those funds. So I just want to put that for the record, that he’s looking and that it’s not actually there.

I know some of my other colleagues have some questions that they’d like to ask as well. I just want to put the importance of the Early Childhood Development Program and if we start focusing some of our dollars there, you see four lines down the inclusive schooling...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of program delivery details on here that I had questions in regards to. The first one, obviously, is with the Early Childhood Development Program. Back in 2010-11 we were funding it more than what was asked, and 2011-12 it was at $7.208 million, and this year again nothing has changed and yet the Minister continues to speak about how important early childhood development is, and we’re waiting on some of those infrastructure and programs to help our communities and our early childhood succeed.

With this put in the budget, would the Minister be able to look at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister had mentioned that. In speaking with my constituent, all he wanted was fairness. He wanted fairness for all northern contractors and he wanted to be a voice to say look, there is something wrong with this process. He wants any northern contractors who lose a contract within this government to seek answers and not just accept it for what it is. That is a message to all northern contractors to look for answers and know why they didn’t win the contracts.

With that said, I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to do an overall training...

Mr. Speaker, so I guess it is kind of safe to say that when the BIP process is being scored, they are not scored the same from department to department or person to person or committee to committee, so there are some discrepancies on how this BIP policy actually works in all the departments within this government.

How can the Minister justify that a local company loses a contract to a southern company when the whole objective of the BIP process is to allow our local contractors a greater chance of securing these contracts and keeping the money in the North as well as creating jobs for our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After the initial awards were brought forth, it had come to the headquarters here and it was headquarters that had made the recommendations that they review the BIP policy. I believe that’s the process, according to my sources dealing with this guy. What it comes down to is we want answers. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to make public the original proposals with the date received stamp on them as well as the contract scores in detail. Not the final scores. The scores in detail of the contracts made public to this contractor and to everybody so that...

My second question is: How does a local contractor lose a contract that he previously had for four or five years to a southern company, and most likely through the BIP process? Can I ask the Minister to explain that one to me? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I got elected into the House here and during my campaign I told everybody that I would bring each and every issue to this table, whether it was personal, whether it was government, to get the right and appropriate answers that needed to be addressed.

For the last two months I’ve been dealing with a certain individual in Inuvik who has been having problems with this government, who was actually employed by this government at one time as a contractor. Last week we heard a lot of questions and concerns in regard to contracting and this one takes the cake.

We had a...