Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure with regard to procurement. A few more around procurement.
Mr. Speaker, I worked for the Housing Corporation for a few years, a number of years ago. Honestly, I was in the department that dealt with procurement on a regular basis. I recognized on an ongoing basis that there were some flawed processes. There was nothing wrong with admitting that, and that there is a need for continual improvement and review in order to improve these process.
Maybe what I'll do is I'll start by asking the Minister: first of all, does he believe that the GNWT procurement practices are fair to begin with? Better yet, what practices does the GNWT incorporate to make sure that our procurement policies are fair? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier said earlier today, they believe this is one of the best policies we have in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and that is BIP. That's one of the first ones in the procurement process that helps Northerners be able to participate in a way that recognizes the high cost of operating in the Northwest Territories and being here. As I said earlier today, we have the community engagement process that's involved in the RFP process to help businesses when they're bidding on the process to add onto BIP, to give them more points basically for northern labour, northern materials suppliers, these sorts of things, with a huge community engagement criteria. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Let's take it another step. I mean, we heard earlier today that a number of MLAs have heard from constituents, in particular businesses in their constituencies that feel that at times things are maybe not as fair as they ought to be. I would like to ask the Minister: if a vendor feels that a procurement policy wasn't fair, what kind of measures does the government have that a vendor can maybe make an appeal, or is there a committee in which a vendor can voice a complaint and be heard?
Yes, that's a great question. Back in 2010, the Auditor General did a review -- or 2009, I believe it was -- did a review of the department. It was brought forward at that time that we should have a vendor complaints system. That was incorporated in 2010. Since 2010 until December 31, 2017, we've had 22 complaints through that process, and only two have ever found merit.
It seems to me they actually are hearing the voice of business after all. It turns out there is a venue in which they can hear some of these complaints. The question becomes: does the public know well enough that they have this option and that there is this portal or this venue in which they can share complaints? Quite frankly, what we are hearing today is that a number of them still haven't been heard.
The Premier alluded to earlier that he is asking us, if there are concerns, to bring them forward. They would be happy to address them. I am wondering if the Minister of Infrastructure once again will turn that around and reach out to the people and hear from them rather than hearing it through MLAs? Will the Minister please undertake a review and do a public consultation to hear what the public has to say about our procurement policies so he can hear it first hand?
As I just mentioned, since 2010, we had 22 complaints. That is in eight years. Two had merit. For example, this year, the last calendar year, we have 362 contracts go through Infrastructure. That is not counting the contracts awarded by Infrastructure on behalf of other departments. Put this into context, we had 362 contracts valued at $136 million. As I have stated in this House, I have had two or three people come directly to me about the process and complaining about it. The vendor complaint process clearly shows there is not an issue. Twenty-two people complained since 2010, and two have had merit.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
