Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on some of the questions and statements that I made in my statement.
I talked about a request for tender and that it does not allow for -- I didn’t mention this -- full-cost accounting of the service that is being sought. There is no opportunity for the buyer to do company reference checks, to consider the ability of the company’s staff in light of the work being contracted for. To get a full value of our money on such a contract, I believe we ought to be using a request for proposal. My question to the Minister is why Stanton Territorial Health Authority did not use a request for proposal for the medical travel contract.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Member’s concerns in this regard. It should be made clear that the local businesses were given all preferential treatment available under our government policies to support northern businesses. With all that considered for about a $250,000 contract, there was a difference of over $100,000. So there was quite a substantial difference in the prices and, secondly, it should be made clear that while we are having discussions about government policies, it’s really important to make sure that we don’t suggest that any staff has done anything wrong. Stanton staff have been under attack in the House and I have to tell you that all government rules were followed and especially in this contract process.
Mr. Speaker, I believe it’s a legitimate discussion for us to discuss what more could we do to give preferential treatment to northern businesses, but for this contract all the rules were followed, the staff did all the right things and if the Member suggests that maybe we should give everything to a request for proposal, we could do that, but that’s a separate issue.
Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that this was handled as a tender because that’s how it was done previously. This was not a new process. They were not looking for new ideas. It was a northern business that earned this contract last time as a tender and so it went out as a tender for the second time. Thank you.
Thank you. I think the Minister missed my point. I have no concerns with the process. I never once mentioned the process. My concern is that a request for tender does not get us the evaluation of the contractor that we should be getting. It doesn’t allow us to look at all aspects of the service that we’re asking for. I know that the northern agencies were given preferential treatment, that was made very evident to me and I have no concern with that.
It’s been about a month now since that contract has been awarded and I now understand that some of our medical travel staff are experiencing some problems with this new contractor. I’m told especially slow and lengthy turnaround time to get itineraries for travel bookings. So I’d like to ask the Minister how are things working out with the new contractor. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member has a valid point. If she would like the government to consider that all of these things get done by a request for proposal, that’s something that we could look into, but that would be within the responsibility of departments in charge of contract rules.
Secondly, the Member is saying that she’s heard of problems. I’ve not heard of any problems with people booking medical travel. If the Member has a specific question, I’d be happy to follow that up, but I’ve not heard from the Member on that issue prior to today and I’ve not heard from anybody else who is suggesting that there’s any problem with the way the program is delivered. Of course, as a Minister I’d be happy to hear any of that at any time and follow up as I always do. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for the response. I guess it disturbs me somewhat that Members have to tell the Minister how to be creative and that we have to tell our staff what to do. I would hope that they would be constantly looking for ways to save money, and in my estimation an RFP is far better than a tender.
To the Minister not having heard any concerns, that’s great. Maybe there aren’t any, but with a new contractor in any program area, I think there should be constant monitoring in the early days. So the Minister told us that we were going to have a seamless transition a little while ago. I’d like to know if either the hospital or the department has asked the staff for an evaluation to date, are they happy with the new system, has their workload increased, are things more or less efficient than before. Thank you.
Thank you. I believe the system has been in place less than a month. I believe it went into effect at the end of January and the Member mentioned in her question that she’s hearing that there are problems. I’m not aware of that. I’d be happy to receive that information from her and I’d be willing to commit to taking a look to see how we are delivering that program, because obviously when we get somebody to deliver a program on our behalf, we want to make sure that the work is being done right. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister I would like to say that I would hope that when we have a new contractor, we would be proactive and we would be checking up to make sure that things are working okay. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to do some sort of an evaluation. That was my next question. So I wish her to confirm that either she or the hospital will do a brief evaluation of the contractor and the service to date, and will she report those findings to the House? Thank you.
Thank you. As I indicated, the contract has been in place less than a month. I believe it came into effect at the end of January. I believe it’s a two-year contract with a renewal clause. At the appropriate time I would be happy to commit to an evaluation. Having said that, I’m not sure if a month is enough to do an evaluation on something. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
