Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I made my statement earlier, I was a little fired up, but I'm here to represent the people, Mr. Speaker, and the people are sick and tired of being ignored. They're exasperated, and so am I. The GNWT has failed to adequately use government procurement to grow and diversify our economy, build capacity, and employ Northerners. These are all priorities for this Assembly. They can be found in the mandate that we all agreed to, even the Minister. I'm not sure if our statements today convinced the Minister that there are issues with the practices of his department, but admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing it. So will the Minister admit that the concerns we've raised are valid and that there are problems with infrastructures procurement practices? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
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.
People always say to me, "We voted for change. What happened?" I'm tired of saying, "We're working on it." I'm starting to say, "Let's wait another year and a half," because answers like this are ridiculous. Mr. Speaker, I mention the disrespect shown to small businesses by the government. I've seen some of the correspondence sent by the representatives of the GNWT to businesses regarding procurement, and I've heard stories from business owners. Businesses are treated like children and subordinates. The government acts like business exists to serve them, not the other way around. So will this Minister commit to providing ongoing customer service training to all infrastructure employees involved with procurement, the same way the Minister of Housing has done?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad he's asked this question, or has mentioned it, because Infrastructure routinely offers procurement training workshops to Government of the Northwest Territories employees. I will update this House, as of now, the Department of Human Resources does this training calendar, and workshops are held to design NWT procurement process for all procurements regardless of value, and focus on supporting Northwest Territories businesses and manufacturers, wherever possible. Up to date, this year, since April 1st of 2017, the department has delivered 48 procurement training workshops, with over 450 GNWT employees who participated in this, and that's not even counting the workshops that are within our department alone.
My questions are focused on solutions, but it looks like I'm not going to get any. Having procurement training workshops, teaching these same tactics that are the problem, is not going to solve anything. The question was about customer service, not about more of the same. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the practices of his department regarding procurement to identify and fix the areas that are currently restricting small businesses from effectively competing on RFPs?
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 what we use to help demonstrate that we are supporting the local economy in the Northwest Territories, and we will continue to do so.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm just going to forgo the rest of my questions. I know the Minister can't offer opinions, but, you know what, it's the government, maybe there's a policy about it. What would it take for the department to realize that there is a problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I've said in this House many times, and I will say it to everyone across the room here, and I don't have a problem saying it, last time I sat in this House, we had two or three people who came to me directly about complaints about the procurement system. Since I've last stood in this House and said the exact same thing, I may have had one person come to me. I do not have a problem with the procurement system within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and I will not review the policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
