Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Premier as well. I want to follow up on the questions I asked over the last number of months on sole-source contracting. Obviously it was quite a concern and we had some really good examples. I happened to be dealing with Ministers; now we’re dealing with deputy ministers and high-level bureaucrats. What steps has the Premier taken since we’ve raised these issues and the obvious concern of both the Members of the House and the public? What steps has the Premier taken to tighten up and review, perhaps review and tighten up, the contracting procedures? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have had no one from the public contact me or my office specifically; the issue has come from the Assembly here. We continue to use the policies that are in place. Any change in policy, we have a process where we go back to Members of the Assembly. If there’s a request by committee to look at that, we’ll take a look at that, as I responded earlier in an earlier question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would say the request has been quite plain and already on the Premier’s plate for some time now, probably through committee too. So I’d like specifics. That there is no concern out there is clearly not correct, if the Premier reads the newspaper and so on. I’m hoping he will tell us what he plans to do, if he actually has not done anything yet, to review and tighten up this process for sole-source contracting.
We could create policy on the fly here if that’s what Members like. There’s a process for dealing with policy and there’s also the Financial Administration Act that’s in place that stipulated levels of authority for contracting. There’s a Financial Administration Manual that is a part of the process. That work is actually ongoing from the Department of Finance looking at the Financial Administration Act and the FAM, as we call it, or Financial Administration Manual. That’s being looked at overall in the government how we contract. For the actual policies themselves, there are issues and questions that have been raised by Members but I can’t recall and I’d have to go back to the paperwork to see if there’s an actual letter saying a requested revision of those policies. But right now, the Financial Administration Act itself is undergoing work, as along with that is the Financial Administration Manual.
I appreciate the comments from the Premier there. What would the Premier say is the best process for Members to take here to get that review and revision happening, recognizing that of course there is a Financial Administration Act and a process described, but then there’s the actual implementation of it in a way that does not favour those with previous relationships with the government or whatever.
Let’s be clear that again, with a Territory our size and the delivery of programs as complex as they are, we go out there at times for public tender, RFPs, RFQs, sole-sourced contracts as is the example being used today. We try to deliver the programs and services that we’re expected to deliver. It is a challenging environment. We go through a number of phases and processes of ensuring that we can get the work done and even though people who have worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories in the past, they still need to earn a living if they are to remain in the Northwest Territories. So whether it’s with our government or an aboriginal government, we should recognize that. When it comes to the actual process to use and where we go, well, everything that we do as a government will flow out of the Financial Administration Act. So that would be the first big ticket item that we would look at and how we work and how we let contracts. From there our policies are formed. So I would say that avenue of the Financial Administration Act, then the manual, and then our policies. When it comes to the interpretation of those, well, that’s a day-by-day task and as Members are holding us to account on that even in today’s session.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously the proof is in the pudding. The public is very upset about the sole-sourced contracting that’s going on. There are generally many examples, and we’ve brought them to the Premier before and we’ll bring them to him again, of work that could be done by many that’s sole sourced. Last session, I believe, I raised a number of specific issues. For example, letting go identical contracts for the exact same work and the exact same time frame and letting them out on sole-sourced basis. What’s more specific than that? I’d like to ask, will the Premier be doing some sort of assessment to see what the additional cost of all this sole sourcing is and likely lower quality work than if it had been put out on a competitive basis?
I know the Member is very adept at looking at how we do things as a government and his professional expertise in areas, but he seems to cover quite an area from climate change expertise right down to now contracting, and if in fact the work that we get is quality work or not. We can debate that quality here and we do that. The issues of the work we do as a government, the nature of that work that needs to get done and the timing of that all comes into place when we make decisions. In fact, again, the Member says that the public is outraged at this or very concerned about that. Between an editorial and a number of questions in here, that’s one thing we need to deal with. Yes, we do look into those and provide information on that. But let’s be clear that at times the best experts are the ones who have experience in how we deliver programs and services. At times the best expertise would be those where the Minister or department feel confident in the work that needs to be done and the speed it needs to be done so we can get things happening with ourselves, with the federal government, with aboriginal governments and so on. So there are times when we do use that process of sole-source contracting.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
