Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that there is an apparent conflict in the Manufactured Products Policy that this government operates. There was a tender put out. It was very specifically applied to registered manufacturers under the policy, and it seems that certain details of the policy were not followed. I have a question for the Minister. Have there been any changes to the approved NWT Manufactured Products Policy in the past year? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Manufactured Products Policy still does exist, but, as the Member knows, we are in the process of engaging or have engaged with the Northwest Territories Manufacturers' Association in the public engagement sessions, and we are working on that. We will be tabling that strategy probably in this sitting, but the policy still exists as it has.
On that basis, then, the approved NWT Manufactured Products Policy says that a product that is from an approved manufacturer must be made a term of any contract that it applies to. Yet, on a recent request for tender, the form that was publicly issued said "whenever possible" it would be using NWT products. Can the Minister speak to this inconsistency between the policy and what is being issued on the forms from Infrastructure on procurement?
I don't know the exact specific tender that the Member is talking about, but I suspect, the way the process works, that if there was a procurement for an NWT manufactured product, that would be put out to all compliant northern manufacturers for a bidding process, and, if there were no compliant bids, then it would be going out to public release. That would change the wording of the document.
What I heard is the Minister confirm that the policy still applies, whatever the language of the document says. That is a good thing because, in this case, there were three registered manufacturers, and the policy quite clearly says that they have preferential treatment in this case. Now, I will share the details of this case with the Minister, and he can look over it, but will he undertake to correct this deficiency between what forms are going out and what the policy clearly states, so that we can have certainty for our manufacturers and continue to support them?
I will gladly have a look at the documents that the Member has, but, as I have said, if there was a tender put out to these three manufacturers or something that these three people have qualified for, if there were non-compliant bids that came back, then we would put it out to the public and the wording of that document would change. I will gladly look into this particular tender he is talking about.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
