Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue is not one of whether or not an individual had more merit to provide the services or not, because the individuals whose names were submitted as subcontractors were not assessed by the department as to their qualifications as long as they met the standards that were required. So whether one individual was removed from consideration in one of the RFPs, it didn’t affect the outcome in any material way. Even after removal of that person from one RFP, the BIP office confirmed that it would not have changed the outcome in the application. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the first question, the costs of the proposal was one of the four important aspects that was evaluated, one of the four areas. The proposal was put out with a fixed cost in it. The proposal was advertised as having a budget set at a certain amount, and proponents were asked to respond to tell us what could be provided within that budget.

The issue of how much of the expenditures will be remaining in the North, again, there will be some variety, I guess. We will have to watch and see how much stays in the North. We have a responsibility, now that the contract has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There were three respondents to the public call for request for proposals and all were evaluated on four criteria: the capability of the proponents, the methodology or approach proposed by the proponents, the level of service, and cost. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to supporting parents and caregivers in their efforts to nurture children’s development from birth. A better start in learning leads to greater success in life. With that in mind, I would like to share with you some recent changes to the Early Childhood Program.

Our Early Childhood Program provides contribution funding for both the start-up and operation of licensed day homes and childcare facilities. As of April 1, 2007, our government has increased the amount of those contributions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member talked about the similarities between the jail contract and this one. I would like to point out that in the jail contract, the government-of-the-day removed BIP from consideration and didn’t protect northern businesses. In this case, the business incentive policy is applying to the evaluation of the contracts and, yes, the government agrees that northern businesses deserve that extra protection. But there is a limit to how much extra protection is allowed under the policy and the policy, I am advised by the BIP monitoring office and by Public Works, has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member said the government has taken a position that the proponents were all advised that an inverse ratio would be used. That’s not the case. This was not a situation where the RFP was identified that an inverse ratio would be provided. According to the BIP monitoring office, that is not an unusual process to use when a fixed price or a set price is used in an RFP. So when you advertise that you are looking for a fixed price, it’s quite common to use the inverse ratio.

According to Public Works, this methodology is not prejudicial to northern...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am advised that there is a difference between a tender document and an RFP. The expectation of the tender is that the proponents who are bidding on the tender will have contracts in place with the subcontractors. An RFP is an identification of those who will be used. There isn’t the requirement to have those contracts in place. In this case, as long as the successful proponent meets the set level of northern contractors to make sure that they were appropriately awarded the contract, the advice I am given is that we don’t have grounds to redo the competition....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When Northstar came to me and identified their concerns, I asked the BIP monitoring office in ITI to review the process. I have subsequently asked the Department of Justice to review the process, as well as the Department of Public Works and Services to review the process. All three have come back to me and advised that there is not enough that was wrong with the process to warrant overturning it. As Public Works has said, there were a number of procedural issues with the RFP, but while they may lend themselves to an error of public uncertainty about the process...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Shepell-fgi does not, to the best of my knowledge, have a resident or an office in the Northwest Territories. They did, however, list a number of subcontractors who are registered with the BIP. So BIP would have been allocated for those subcontractors in their proposal.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Disability Awareness Week takes place from May 27th to June 2nd. The purpose of this week is to recognize people with disabilities and to highlight their abilities and contributions to our communities across the Northwest Territories. The month of May is also Speech and Hearing Awareness Month.

This year’s theme for Disability Awareness Week is Building Access One Block at a Time, focusing on education, technology, employment, recreation, transportation and housing. This theme fits in well with the disability framework and action plan for persons with disabilities. That...