Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions will quite obviously be for the Minister of Transportation, if anyone was listening to my Member’s statement. I am sure they were listening very carefully, of course, as to how important it was. Everyone was.
That said, I had asked the Minister’s office for detail on schedule B, or I should say Appendix B, to prove that the contractor had won the electrical bridge contract fairly and squarely. Maybe the Minister could, for the education of the House, say who officially won it and did they have northern content as required in the tender process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. This tender was won fair and square. It was won by Can-Traffic at a cost savings of about $800,000 to the taxpayer here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for putting Can-Traffic on the record. This isn’t an issue about cost. This gets down to the bread and butter of ethics of how contracts are won and awarded and, certainly, issued.
Did Can-Traffic fill out Appendix B as required in the contract? When I e-mailed the department, they refused to show me that they even complied, so nobody even really knows. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, the GNWT public tender process was followed. Three compliant bids were received and evaluated. Those bid prices ranged from $1.149 million to over $4.1 million. The lowest acceptable bid was deemed suitable and the award letter was sent out at the end of January. To my knowledge, that was followed.
If the Member would like further details, he is able to see, through ATIPP, whatever he wants to view. We provided the Member with whatever we could provide him with. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I had asked for information, even to be blacked out, to prove that they had actually complied with the contract bidding process. As I said and I continue to say, part of the Appendix B had to be filled out that demonstrated they had a northern component. This is just an awarding of a sub to a southern company to yet again come do northern work.
Will the Minister comply with my request, which is by e-mail, asking for them to prove that they filled out Appendix B? The way it stands now, they did not and nothing says they complied fairly. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, they were not credited with any northern content, yet again, they were $800,000 below the next… And this is after the BIP adjustment. They were $800,000 below the next bidder, saving taxpayers’ money.
As to whether or not Appendix B was filled out, I can get the Member a yes or no answer to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish I had the former AG’s official comments here last week from which she talked about some of the senators’ expenses, such as accept but verify. How do we verify a yes or no? Quite frankly, a yes or no does not prove to the public that they actually complied with the requirements that everybody else was following. Yes, I’m happy that the lowest bid may be getting it, but the fact is I am happy maybe for the wrong reasons.
Will the Minister prove publicly that they complied with all the requirements as set out to the bid? All we are asking for is a fair playing field. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, we want to ensure that there is a fair process. Certainly I’m not saying that the Member is correct or incorrect. I am saying that the process was followed. The contract was awarded. If the Member wants other information, I’ll do my best to get him whatever information that he needs to satisfy his requirement that Appendix B was filled out and that all the proper steps were taken in the award of this contract. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
