Wally Schumann

We went out and talked to all the manufacturers in the Northwest Territories. We have gone to all the regions and had this discussion. I will be tabling in this Assembly, in this session, the "what we heard" report around the manufacturers' strategy. I haven't even had a close look at it myself yet. I suspect that, if this is an issue with the manufacturers, it will be in the "what we heard" report. We will have a look at it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I have stated, we have put this to the working committee. I have reached out to the Northern Construction Association. Based on one person, again, am I willing to make legislation? Possibly. I am willing to sit down with the Construction Association and see if this is something that is of utter importance that needs to be done in a timely manner, to have a look at it. As of right now, with one person, I am not ready to move on legislation.

As I just mentioned, since 2010, we had 22 complaints. That is in eight years. Two had merit. For example, this year, the last calendar year, we have 362 contracts go through Infrastructure. That is not counting the contracts awarded by Infrastructure on behalf of other departments. Put this into context, we had 362 contracts valued at $136 million. As I have stated in this House, I have had two or three people come directly to me about the process and complaining about it. The vendor complaint process clearly shows there is not an issue. Twenty-two people complained since 2010, and two have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier said earlier today, they believe this is one of the best policies we have in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and that is BIP. That's one of the first ones in the procurement process that helps Northerners be able to participate in a way that recognizes the high cost of operating in the Northwest Territories and being here. As I said earlier today, we have the community engagement process that's involved in the RFP process to help businesses when they're bidding on the process to add onto BIP, to give them more points basically for northern...

As I've said, the department is very supportive of northern businesses, and we have to adhere to the policies that are here, and we are here to support and protect the northern purse as well. At the same time, the department has also come out with a community engagement process for RFPs. This is to engage the proponent, the criteria around used to credit available, around the community engagement process, along with the BIP process, to have policies for local and northern labour and material and goods purchases in the Northwest Territories. Under this community engagement criteria, this is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any concerns that are brought forward to me by any Members of this Legislative Assembly or members of the public are valid, and we sit and listen to them, and my door is always open. As to the comment about having procurement issues in the GNWT and that our policies and procedures are wrong, I totally disagree with the Member. Our department is here to adhere to the policies that are in this Legislative Assembly; it's here to support businesses and, at the same time, protect the GNWT's investment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can't control if the Member wants to bring a private Member's bill forward. I have said we have recognized this. We have reached out to the Northern Construction Association. We are monitoring what Ontario is doing. The federal government is pushing theirs through their House.

As far as progress payments go, that is a totally different issue than prompt payment. Progress payment seems to be an issue around the manufacturers' goods. We are coming forward with a manufacturers' strategy, a "what we heard" document. If that is an issue in those documents, then we will sit down and have that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. He brought it up in the House last year. Since then, the Department of Infrastructure has introduced a prompt payment issue to the Procedures Working Committee. They are having a look at this thing. Ontario has just recently passed this prompt payment legislation. They are the only ones in Canada who have done it. The federal government is having a look at doing this. We are continuing to monitor both of them moving forward.

At the same time, we have also reached out to the Construction Association of the Northwest Territories on prompt-payment...

Yes, that's a great question. Back in 2010, the Auditor General did a review -- or 2009, I believe it was -- did a review of the department. It was brought forward at that time that we should have a vendor complaints system. That was incorporated in 2010. Since 2010 until December 31, 2017, we've had 22 complaints through that process, and only two have ever found merit.

The public engagement plan was provided to standing committee and stated that the second round of engagement could occur based on the expression of interest of community and feedback that we have. In fact, this is already happening. We have already met with the Chamber of Mines. We have received the request to meet with Alternatives North and expect to meet with them also moving forward. We will also continue to meet with the Intergovernmental Council going forward with the drafting process.