Letter from Alasdair McKay to:
Minister of Supply and Services for N.S., 03 July 94
Halifax N.S.
.
Dear Sir,
.
I have spoken on the telephone with a member of your staff
about a contract let by the N.S. Dept. of Natural Resources to
the N.S. Research Foundation (signed 31st Jan 94 - a partial copy
attached). Your staff member suggested that, in view of the fact
that the document bears none of the usual file or indexing
numbers which your department uses, it was highly unlikely that
the work covered by the contract had been put to public tender. I
would be glad if you could now ask one of your assistants to
investigate the matter fully and that you confirm to me that the
contract in question was signed without passing through the hands
of any agent of your ministry for public tendering. If this is
indeed the case, I would further ask that you explain, or ask
your colleagues, the ministers of Natural Resources and of
Economic Renewal, to explain why the interest of the local
geoscience business sector in this project was not solicited.
.
You will note from my letter of 06 Oct 92
(attached)
to Dr. Prior, with copies to Dr. Howells of NSRFC and to the Minister of
Economic Development (inter alios), that I had already defined a
project in essence identical to that which is currently the topic
of the contract in question and in so doing made my interest in
performing such work quite clear to at least one of the
signatories to the contract over a year before its signing. In
more recent discussions with other local geoscientists, I have
established that I was not alone in formulating such a project
nor in raising the matter with NSRFC.
.
I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know if you
require any further details about the contract in question to
assist in your tracing of it.
.
Yours truly,
.
Alasdair McKay
.
cc The Hon. Mr. Ross Bragg, Minister of Economic Renewal
The Hon. Mr. Don Downe, Minister of Natural Resources
Dr. J. Savage, M.L.A., Dartmouth South
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