Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a request for tender that went out to a local business. When you have a chance to read the documentation that went out for tender, there are 13 pages as the attachment of fine, detailed requests. But it’s all vague and it all points to a catalogue of a local competitor. In my Member’s statement I mentioned how I believe it’s fraught with bias and I think the only respectable thing to do today is the Minister say that she’ll withdraw this tender of goods that I’ve made aware to her and to issue a clean, clear, unbiased request. Would the Minister of Health and Social Services heed my request and withdraw this present tender and reissue a fair one that shows no bias whatsoever?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information I have is that this RFP went up on the website as is the process. This is the normal process. It went up on May 7th to be closed on May 20th. There were half a dozen inquiries about the RFP. The Beaufort-Delta materials management section noticed that one large supplier in Yellowknife did not inquire about this RFP and, in fact, the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority took it on its own initiative to fax the information to this large supplier a few days later, which is when this business got the fax. The information we have is that the process has been followed and there is no need to cancel this process.
It’s interesting how the Minister paints the light as if it’s been fair and open. To say it went on the web page, she is correct, but the fact is that the Inuvik Health and Social Services was chasing down this… Obviously it’s clear that they were chasing down this business to participate in a public tender. But if you read the public tender, it says a specific company; we’re using their catalogue and references and numbers. How does the Department of Health and Social Services expect them to compete fairly and openly with what clearly looks like a sole-source contract dedicated to one business only? How does the Minister expect that without it being withdrawn and treated fairly?
The Member is correct that the detailed information on products were catalogue numbers. But we do have a situation where we’ve had a number of businesses responding to this RFP. It would be unfair to those businesses that are interested and have responded, to cancel the RFP now. The Beaufort-Delta Health Authority is aware that they need to do a better job of describing the products and they will do that.
We also have a situation where these are for medical supplies that need to go to communities of Tuktoyaktuk, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour, and they have to meet the barge deadline. So it is important that we do this for the May 20th deadline. The businesses out there still have the opportunity to respond to supply these products.
I think this is where the Minister clearly misunderstands the situation. This looks like nothing other than a sole-source. Clearly it says one supplier’s name. Anybody who wants to compete has to call the local competitor and say, well, I need to understand what these local product numbers are. Are these catalogue numbers out of your book? Because they’re certainly not out of any of the national suppliers’ books, they’re out of a very specific company’s book. They also used the spreadsheet off this specific company where they have to go to to get pricing in order to compete. To pull this back and make sure that everyone’s aware that they all know what they are at least working against would be the only way to do this. If it’s anything but that, it seems wrong and unfair. Why won’t the Minister admit to that and see it and treat it fairly by pulling it back and saying let’s do this openly and honestly, make sure everyone has a fair chance?
As I have indicated, since the RFP went up on May 10th, the staff reviewed the inquiries. On May 14th they noticed that one major supplier did not respond. They took it upon themselves to contact this business, so they wanted to make sure that everybody who could supply these supplies were contacted. I don’t believe there is a situation of a sole-sourced contract. There has been time to respond to that.
I do take the Member’s point that the product description could have been done better and they will do that, but as I’ve indicated already, we do need to provide these supplies in time for the barge order. So we will improve the system, or the Beaufort-Delta knows to improve the system next time. They do need to go ahead with this tendering process.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whenever I, in my 10 years of politics here, whenever I heard the phrase “I hear your point” or “I take your point,” that usually tells me that someone’s going to vote against me or speak against whatever I just said. It couldn’t be clearer here today. The Minister has clearly dug in and is protecting and reaffirming a bad decision. And let’s face it, that’s exactly what it is, because it’s a sole-source, no other way around it. Why do you think so many people were looking into how does this make sense?
The Minister wants to improve this situation. As she has made it very clear today, well, we’ll do it next time. To heck with next time. Let’s do it this time. Let’s show some initiative. Will the Minister show initiative by improving the situation by withdrawing this contract and reissuing it fairly so that everyone can compete fairly?
There is some public interest consideration here. We do need to supply, the Beaufort-Delta needs to supply the medical supplies to these four isolated or off-the-road communities. We need to meet the barge deadline. The tender was out for 20 days. The authority made sure that one major supplier that hadn’t responded was contacted with the information so that everybody had a chance to respond.
Like I stated already, there have been a half dozen inquiries onto the website. The authority did more and went above and beyond to make sure the competition was fair.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
