Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement and reading the Negotiated Contracts Policy I again found some startling numbers to indicate the type of negotiated contracts that are happening in other regions versus my region of the Sahtu. I want to ask the Premier on some of the explanation as to why some of the contracts seem more favourable in some of the other regions versus the region that I represent. What are some of the things that take into... I know it’s very complex and that sometimes there are different scenarios for each case, so I want to ask the Premier in terms of the bigger contracts that I’ve indicated in my Member’s statement that were awarded through this process here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Negotiated Contracts Policy is one that we do use throughout the Northwest Territories, as the Member highlighted. We have a number of other tools that we use, as well, and it was referenced in this House about the memorandums of understanding with a number of the Aboriginal groups around contracting, and negotiated contracts falls in that to help meet some of those targets. Some of the work that we need to do in those areas and in reference to the Sahtu is to get a better understanding of the businesses that would qualify.
I must say that, for example in the Department of Public Works and Services, just in the Sahtu in 2010-2011 to date, 84 percent of those contracts, the value of those contracts, have gone to Sahtu-based contractors.
Certainly I agree with the principles of the Negotiated Contracts Policy. Actually it’s a pretty good piece of work. I want to ask, to help out more in the Sahtu in terms of having this government do a workshop with the regional superintendents -- they’re the ones that sort of implement the policy, they’re the ones that take care of the policies -- to look at the policy of negotiated contracts with themselves and see how they can help the Sahtu businesses. I certainly think DPW has done a good job in terms of awarding the 84 percent of the contracts to the Sahtu businesses. This is awarded, I’m talking about specifically negotiated contracts.
I guess the overall target of the Government of the Northwest Territories, as raised in this House a number of times, is to try to build capacity in the industry in the Northwest Territories amongst our businesspeople, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, birthright corporations and so on. We’ve done that and we use a number of tools. Negotiated contracts is one of those.
Some of the difficulty we have is when in the same community or region there is, in a sense, a competition. When you have two Aboriginal companies requesting negotiated contracts it becomes problematic. We use the tools available to us and tendering in the region is one of those that can be used. In a sense, when you just look at the overall percentage that we’ve achieved, at 84 percent shows that many of the companies in the Sahtu are quite able to compete and be successful in that environment. The Negotiated Contracts Policy itself, my understanding is through the regional office there has been workshops held in the past on that and we’ll look to see when it was last done and if that could be seen again.
Part of the other issue is I know Minister Bob McLeod through his shop and on the MOU has been working with the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated to look at finalizing the work around the MOU as one of the tools as well.
I certainly agree with the Negotiated Contracts Policy and principles. I believe that the regional superintendents through the ITI shop, hopefully they will again have another follow-up workshop to look at the negotiated contracts.
I want to ask the Minister in terms of two examples here: a negotiated contract that was awarded here in Yellowknife and one that was awarded in the Beaufort-Delta. Certainly we have competitive businesses that were available in the region or in the city here. How did that process happen? Now he’s telling me the same thing in the Sahtu. What’s the answer as to how do we deal with this kind of stuff that the Minister is talking about? Can he justify these two contracts?
The issue of negotiated contracts is one that does come up right across the Northwest Territories. The challenge we have is when there are competing interests and when there is capacity to be able to bid the work. My understanding is there’s some work coming up, there’s opportunity and there’s some work in progress on a couple of potential negotiated contracts during the life of this government, if not already been dealt with. For example, the demolition of one of the schools is one of those areas, so some success in that area. But we will look at the Negotiated Contracts Policy, its application in the Sahtu area. Again, the difficulty becomes where you have more than one Aboriginal company trying to bid on the work. One of the other areas that we use is when we know that the end result, a public tender, for example, will not achieve a better result is another area that is looked at from time to time. We look at all of those areas in making a decision of Cabinet.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the negotiated contracts, like I said, benefit the local people. It builds capacity and helps the local economy. I’m all for that. I want to ask the Minister, when the negotiated contracts are in place, the work has been done, the work has been carried out, does the Minister receive a reporting list of all the benefits that this contract has provided to the local community and the region?
The departments that request a negotiated contract and those contracts that are agreed to, there is a reporting process by the departments back to Cabinet. So there is a report that’s required.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
