Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of ITI made a statement about manufacturing and the GNWT’s support of manufacturing in the Northwest Territories. I guess one of the problems I have is that I’m not seeing that in real life. I have a question for the Minister of Transportation today.
In October the Department of Transportation issued a tender to have a plow truck manufactured in the South. It was given to a northern contractor, but all the work is being done in the South.
Can the Minister of Transportation indicate why this tender was issued? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, the Northern Manufacturer Policy has certain items that are under the Northern Manufacturer Policy and a plow truck is not one of the items under the northern manufacturer product, even though they can be made in the Territories. In that case, the individuals constructing plow trucks in the territory would then compete with other bidders and they would have Business Incentive Policy numbers apply. Thank you.
I don’t understand the concept, because the Department of Transportation had plow trucks built in the North by northern manufacturers before, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
It is likely that they have the plow trucks assembled here in the Northwest Territories. I guess my point is that the plow truck itself is not approved as an NWT-manufactured product. It’s not registered as an NWT-manufactured product. So when they build a plow truck, they go through a regular tender process and then they compete. Wherever it is considered to be northern, then they would get the Business Incentive Policy applied, which would benefit them and give them that advantage in that category, but not necessarily getting the job just outright as a northern manufacturer. Thank you.
I guess the manufacturing policy, if there’s a 25 percent value-added is the indication, and the information I’ve been given is that the value of this tender was 70 percent of manufacturing and the truck was only 30 percent of the cost.
The department has bought plow trucks from a northern manufacturer before. How does this company not get on a manufacturing list? How does the Department of Transportation not support northern manufacturing?
The company that put the plow truck together, manufactured the plow truck, is a registered northern manufacturer, but they’re registered to provide steel tanks, bridges, steel plate girders and so on. In order for them to become a northern manufacturer of plow trucks, then they’d have to go through the process of going through ITI and getting registered as a northern manufacturer. I don’t think there’s anything preventing that from happening, however. If they’re recognized as a northern manufacturer and the added value is there and they’re approved, then in the future when DOT buys plow trucks we would just go directly to our approved northern manufacturer of products. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It baffles me that the GNWT doesn’t… A product they’ve already bought, a product they’ve already been given several times, they still don’t respect that. Even if the manufacturing wasn’t respected, on a bid of $216,000 or $217,000, even if BIP was applied at 10 percent, the bid prices were $8,400 apart. Even 10 percent on a $200,000 bid price, that’s $20,000. A northern company should have got it. A value-added would have been in the Northwest Territories.
Can the Minister explain why this company was not given the tender? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t have the BIP evaluations here with me today; however, I have confidence that the individuals who are tendering and the procurement are doing appropriate BIP evaluation. I’m assuming after the BIP was applied that the company that got the job had the lowest number. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
