Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some follow-up questions about the process. In my Member’s statement I explained the process of how I understand negotiated contracts. I was also informed each request to negotiate is carefully considered by department and Minister and results in a decision to proceed with seeking Cabinet approval to negotiate or, in some of the instances, decision to proceed with tendering. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell the House if Cabinet or the department decided not to go to a negotiated contract for the contract in Highway No. 7? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In that particular contract, the decision was mine and mine alone not to bring into Cabinet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I guess I’m quite disappointed in hearing that answer, and I’ll deal with some other questions later on. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please provide the rationale. Why did he and his department decided against this proposal?
The reason that I made that decision is based on a negotiated contract policy, and there’s things in there that I base my decision on and that’s what I did.
It looks like I’m going to have a set of questions tomorrow for the Minister on this as well. In the letter and the correspondence I received from the Premier and the Minister they talked about the companies being on a level playing field. However, Mr. Speaker, the economic reality in the NWT is contractors are not on the same playing field with contractors who come from outside of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister aware of any barriers facing companies from the North bidding on work in BC? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As far as I know, I don’t believe there’s any barriers for any northern company to bid on any southern work.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the Minister may not be aware of barriers, as I recently was informed that there are some barriers. Mr. Speaker, if an NWT company is successful in getting work in BC they are required to pay PST on all their equipment moved into BC, plus they need to file multi-financial statements and related documents. On top of that, they have to purchase various permits. This adds up to thousands of dollars to the cost of the contract. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister have his department look into implementing similar for the NWT so we are on a level playing field? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As we have GST and they have GST and PST, and probably some other taxes that’s relevant to all contractors bidding on work probably in British Columbia. As far as contractors coming north and us, we all have the same contracts stuff we have to abide by. We’ve got to have workers’ compensation, you’ve got to have your permits in place, and pay GST and the payroll tax and all those number of things. There should be no impediment, any difference back and forth.
