Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er is due to meet at 6 pm to­day with con­trac­tors. Dis­cus­sions are like­ly to cen­tre on the re­port­ed $1.5 bil­lion gov­ern­ment debt to con­trac­tors and the planned pub­lic con­struc­tion pro­gramme. Warn­er ex­tend­ed the in­vi­ta­tion when he met Mikey Joseph, pres­i­dent of the Con­trac­tors As­so­ci­a­tion, and his ex­ec­u­tive last Thurs­day. Warn­er told the con­trac­tors then that $300 mil­lion was be­ing made avail­able through the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion and E-TECK Con­struc­tion pro­gramme.

He al­so promised an as­sess­ment of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port's debt to con­trac­tors. The par­ties agreed to meet month­ly. At to­day's meet­ing, it is like­ly that there would be dis­cus­sions on con­tract reg­is­tra­tion and li­cens­ing and the need for a build­ing code for the lo­cal in­dus­try. There is al­so spec­u­la­tion of di­a­logue on the up­com­ing na­tion­al bud­get.