Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As much as I would like to continue questioning the Minister of Health on some of these questions, this is a bigger issue. It comes down to the Business Incentive Policy. My question today is for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I just want to know, when RFPs come through to the government, who scores the BIP process of that RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that question. I’m glad to have an opportunity to talk about the Business Incentive Policy. That is a policy of the GNWT. We certainly have that under our mandate of ITI, but when it comes to evaluating RFPs, it is left up to each department to oversee the implementation of the Business Incentive Policy. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, so I guess it is kind of safe to say that when the BIP process is being scored, they are not scored the same from department to department or person to person or committee to committee, so there are some discrepancies on how this BIP policy actually works in all the departments within this government.
How can the Minister justify that a local company loses a contract to a southern company when the whole objective of the BIP process is to allow our local contractors a greater chance of securing these contracts and keeping the money in the North as well as creating jobs for our northern people? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member. I think that is first and foremost with the Business Incentive Policy, is to keep money in the North, to keep jobs in the North.
Back in 2010 there was extensive consultation with the business community in the Northwest Territories on some revisions to the Business Incentive Policy. One of those revisions back in 2010 was the definition of NWT content which allows bid adjustments. In the case of services, one of those changes was NWT resident labour. In this case, that was applied to the RFP but we have to remember that was only 20 percent of the overall RFP. There was methodology, past relevant experience, contract schedule fees and expenses. It is certainly something we have to pay attention to, but that change was brought into effect to help protect jobs in the Northwest Territories.
In this instance, it would appear that, yes, it is protecting jobs because the contractor is going to employ local people, but if you follow the dollars, that contractor is located in Red Deer, Alberta, and the contract money would be going south. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier about being transparent and this government preaches transparency. Would the Minister be willing to look at making all contracts that come through this government and through the departments and the process of the BIP, when those scores come out, if he is willing to make those public so that all contractors and the public know where their tax dollars are being spent, and how this government reviews the BIP policy, and whether or not they are being effective and efficient in awarding the contracts to the right people? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Business Incentive Policy is a policy of the Government of the Northwest Territories. If Members of this House want to revisit the Business Incentive Policy, is there a loophole here that allowed a southern company to get a contract in Inuvik? If that is the case, then if Members of this House want to have another look at the Business Incentive Policy, it is under the purview of this Assembly to do that.
I understand the Member’s concerns. I want to let him know and other Members know that we are willing to work with Members to try to shore up the policy so that situations like this don’t arise again. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad that the Minister had mentioned that. In speaking with my constituent, all he wanted was fairness. He wanted fairness for all northern contractors and he wanted to be a voice to say look, there is something wrong with this process. He wants any northern contractors who lose a contract within this government to seek answers and not just accept it for what it is. That is a message to all northern contractors to look for answers and know why they didn’t win the contracts.
With that said, I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to do an overall training within departments on how this Business Incentive Policy is scored. Is he willing to do that training so that all departments know how to score a Business Incentive Policy and we don’t go through this again in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that level of training already happens across government, but certainly in questioning my colleague Minister Beaulieu earlier, Minister Beaulieu had committed to a post-mortem on this situation.
Certainly from ITI’s perspective, the department responsible for the Business Incentive Policy, we will be taking an active role in that post-mortem and sitting down with the Members to examine this situation and going forward to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. Thank you.
