Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2017-2018, for How to Do Business With the GNWT, there were approximately 200 participants in 18 workshops. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.
I don't know if the department has this information on hand, but what, statistically, does 200 participants represent? How many clients is the GNWT doing business with in a given fiscal year? Is 200 close to a majority, or is this just a sliver of the overall economic field? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that number. It is a number that we would perhaps be able to get by looking to see how many registered persons or businesses are on our procurement opportunities website. That would one way to find that. We could do that, and that would give some idea of what the quantum is, but we don't have a number of how many particular people participate. In any particular organization, there could be a number of employees that could be registered or participating. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. That would be helpful. Can the Minister commit to doing that, and further include to do more of a qualitative analysis of whether or not this procurement outreach is working? It is fine to log participants and meetings, but those are all output-based metrics. If we don't know that 200 participants is statistically important to easing understanding of our procurement policies within the business community, it is just a number. Can the department commit to putting more qualitative analysis towards this exercise and reporting on it annually, either in business plans or some other mechanism that the Minister feels is appropriate? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can pull something together for the Member, but at the same time, I think we can offer committee, again, standing committee, we can give them a briefing on procured services and what we are doing and a little more in-detail discussion can take place at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. Apart from this kind of standard outreach, what other client-facing positions and programs are supported in this budget? The Minister is well aware that I and others of my honourable colleagues have brought numerous procurement issues to his attention, and he does not seem to be aware of them before they come on the floor of the House. What is the department doing to address that? There are a lot of concerns out there. They don't seem to be reaching the Minister's ears. How is this budget improving either a complaint process or some client-facing service officer who can listen to these concerns and adequately move them up to chain of command so that they can get properly addressed? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member makes it sound like we are in dire straits here in procured shared services, and that is clearly not the case. He and I have argued this on the floor of the House a number of times. The department is working on stuff. We made improvements to the RFP evaluation process. We do mandatory customer service training and fairness advisory training with all of our staff. There are a number of things that we continue to work on, and we continue to evaluate on procured shared services moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. I wasn't asking a policy question, but I appreciate the Minister's comments. I think there is more room to go. Are there client-facing service officers attached to procurement who can listen to concerns from the public directly? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have our front-line procurement officers that answer the phone, answer questions, and deal directly on a day-to-day basis with the vendors and the contractors when they are participating in a procurement process. Those front-line staff are available to answer questions and look into or address any concerns that the vendors and clients have. There are also opportunities through the director of procured shared services. He will often field questions from clients or from contractors around matters related to procurement.
On a more formal basis, working with the Department of Finance, a vendor complaint process was also put in place. Where vendors have issues with the procurement process or fairness around a particular procurement event, there is a formal process where they can bring it forward and get their concerns addressed as well.
There are many opportunities where people can raise their concerns in the department around issues related to procurement. There are also opportunities through the Comptroller General's Office in the Department of Finance, who has ultimate oversight over procurement policies and procedures. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Guy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response. It was very thorough. Where are these positions located? Are they all in headquarters, or are there also regional front-line client service officers? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have procurement officers in Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, and, I believe, Fort Simpson. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Testart.
Noticing the time, I will just be quick if you will allow me one more question. A lot of the procurement really depends on local knowledge, knowing who the vendors are, knowing what they offer, and knowing what their issues are. Is the department planning on adding additional front-line officers in the regions, especially the new Sahtu region, the Beaufort-Delta? Is that something that the department will consider? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What we do is we look at where the resources are required based on the demand, and certainly, in future business plans, if we see a need to have additional resources there, we would bring forward for the forced-growth process to add additional procurement officers in some of those other centres where the demand for the service is there.
We have put a lot of work into increasing our online presence as well and working with some of the procurement software that is being developed with the Department of Finance to make it easier for people anywhere in the territory to access the procurement office and procurement services as well. We are looking at increasing our telephone support as well. Our regional staff, our regional superintendents, also provide a front-line opportunity for regional contractors and regional businesses to access the department as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Next on the list, we have Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the first line on page 243, on air, marine and safety, could the Minister give a little bit of detail on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Guy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is the division that provides the oversight on our airports program, our ferries program, and overall OHS safety within the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Guy. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that. Four lines down to energy, there seems to be an increase from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020. Could the Minister give a little bit of information on that, please? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.
The main one there is going to be the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund for $6,746,000. There are a bunch of things that are broken down in there that we have shared with committee: the Government Greenhouse Gas Grant Fund, the Large Scale Commercial and Industrial Greenhouse Gas Grant Fund, incremental Arctic Energy Alliance funding, and Active Forestry Carbon Sequestration, and then there is also delivery of Investing in Canada Infrastructure plan. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that. Getting back to that, you talk about the Arctic Energy Alliance. There's $1.6 million. I know it's run not by the government, but for the government. Mr. Chair, I think a good thing for the Minister and his department to look at is there are other types of alternative energy. When it comes to that, I think the territory, but Canada as a whole, is far, far behind. This is not coming from myself. This is coming from some constituents who complain that the Arctic Energy Alliance, it's an expensive way to hand out efficient light bulbs and things like that. Like, I said, that's not coming from me. I just might be putting a little bug in the Minister's ear to look at that program, and see how we could advance that in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we did in the last little bit is we did a program review of Arctic Energy Alliance. We've updated committee on that to restructure that, to see that we -- this is a public facing energy efficiency and conservation renewal alternative energy program for the residents of the Northwest Territories. We wanted to make sure that these new programs lined up with the needs of the funding that we received, and we've rejigged a good portion of it. With the additional funding that we've got, we'll be able to expand some of our programs, and I believe that some of the stuff that we've reallocated money to will put pressure on us in the House here because some of these programs are tapped out so early. I think it's a good fit now going forward, and we've got some stable funding for a number of years to help residents of the Northwest Territories to be able to access these programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. That's a good response. On the next line, I know MTS, I gave the Minister a hard time last year on MTS, and I know it's not an easy undertaking to take over something like that, and it takes multiple departments to make it work good, and I commend the department for that, actually. I see that there's no funding for the next couple of years. Coming with that, the cost of fuel has risen up in our region. I'm just wondering if the Minister can shed some light on that, looking forward into 2019 and 2020 and the year after? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The reason there's no line item here is because it has a revolving fund now, so now, as most Members know, this thing has to run on its own merit, which we've been successful in the last couple of years.
To answer the question about what we're going to do going forward, we've recently sent a letter to committee outlining our services update, what we want to do going forward, and lay out some of the stuff that we've done in the past calendar year with the Marine Transportation Services Initiative. Yes, we were challenged this year, as pretty much everybody knows. I've been asked a number of questions in the House. I've been asked on national television about the circumstances around the sea ice challenges that we've had.
To update committee, the letter that we sent there, we're looking at a number of things to help make the resupply a lot, you know, lesson-learned, I guess, from last year. One of the ones we're trying to do is move up our schedule a little bit earlier in the year to supply the communities. Now, that's easy enough said. That's going to be conditional on sea ice again. We're working very closely with the Canadian Coast Guard to help them with the monitoring of ice, and what kind of services they can provide us with. Also, the other side of it is the fuel supply. Last year, we ran into some conditions with the supplier having the fuel supplied in a timely manner, and these are things that are subject to getting these things to the community earlier than later. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. Last year was a tough ice year, and Transport Canada forecasts 2019 to be an even worse year. It's good to hear that the Minister is looking at plans to serve the communities, and hopefully sooner, if we can. I know, during last year's sitting, I asked the Minister about plans for Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, and I'm just wondering, I know this is an O and M budget, but I'm just looking to see where they are on that aspect from a 30,000-foot view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are having a look at Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk from an operational perspective of what we can do in the long-term to possibly help mitigate some of these circumstances that can arise from sea ice challenges, or even fuel shortages. One of the things I think that we need to have a look at, and the department is looking at scoping out, is what infrastructure do we have in place in those two communities, and what would need to be put in there to help mitigate the factor, particularly around the resupply of fuel and the storage capacity that we have in these two communities. That's part of our operational review that MTS is continuing to look at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. Looking at that, talking about fuel, fuel services and long-term plans, there's a lot of infrastructure up in the North that we don't see as civilians. There are radar sites and other types of infrastructure that need heating and need fuel for transportation. It might be worth something in the long run for MTS to think about that, and possibly take other contracts rather than just the territory on a much bigger, bigger scale as the Arctic opens. I just want to hear what the Minister has to say on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Minister Schumann.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I've been questioned in the House last shipping season about what we were doing around some of this commercial activity that we are doing, MTS is going to continue, of course, to contract with Imperial Oil to supply and deliver fuel to Norman Wells. That's in place, and it is there for a number of years going forward.
We are laying out what our marine charter services and support are going to be going forward, and one of the things that we are looking at is how can we support the federal government with the North Warning Fuel Supply program in the Western Arctic. Those discussions are ongoing for sure.
We are going to probably end up going back to Prudhoe Bay this year. I think we have some interest in delivering some natural gas production models up there. We've got to continue to look at these sorts of things. A lot of people had the confusion last time going around that we are looking after industrial customers without looking after ourselves first, and that's clearly not the case. I've clearly laid that out in our public briefing. One of the reasons we want to get these new double-hulled barges is so we can make fewer trips to service the community. Right now, the way it's laid out with the barges that we have, we've got to make multiple trips to go there. When we get the possession of our new double-hulled barges, the four of them that the tender just closed on here recently that we're evaluating, it's going to help us do the seasonal marine resupply program in a better manner. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Nakimayak.
