Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for Minister of ITI. That's kind of where the procurement review is falling under.
So with the government undergoing the procurement review, will the Minister ensure that there are mechanisms put in place to benefit northern businesses to the greatest extent possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was really the purpose of the procurement review in the first place, is to ensure that we are maximizing benefits to northern businesses. Some of the challenges of the procurement review include how we define northern business, how we identify northern business, how we identify or define an Indigenous business, and that's why the procurement review has gone through the process it has with a lot of careful consultation across the entirety of the Northwest Territories, including with modern treaty holders and Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister also ensure that all Crown corporations that receive public dollars that we sit in this House do approve must comply to ensuring that they are following the same mechanisms? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are Crown corporations who are not subject to the same procurement rules as the GNWT. For example, the NTPC does follow their own procurement rules. That said, they are guided and fairly closely align with what the GNWT does. So certainly I expect that they will benefit as well from the work that we are doing and can certainly follow my colleagues who are also responsible for the various corporations to see that we are working towards being as consistent with one with the other as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister also commit to ensure that there are processes? We can have all the procurement rules and establish how we are an NWT business, but if there's no reporting or no followup on things that are put on these companies, then if they're not meeting the obligations that we set in this new procurement review, then the review is, in my words, would be worthless. So will the Minister commit to making sure that there are ways to be following up on these mechanisms? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I completely agree. I'm happy to say that vendor performance management has been something that the auditor, or the Office of the Comptroller General has been working on since early days of this Assembly and, indeed, it's one of the areas where there's already been some progress. Construction contracts over $250,000 are already being monitored to ensure their compliance. But as this procurement review goes forward, I anticipate that that system and that process for monitoring will only improve. Obviously once we know exactly what we are going to be monitoring at the final conclusion of the procurement review, we can expand that. But I completely agree that, indeed, we want to be able to do that monitoring to know what we are enforcing to know whether people are compliant and then to also have a better process for a complaints mechanism, that is also included. Completely agree as well that we want to be held accountable and as well as to be able to hold others accountable. So on this point, again, Mr. Speaker, very happy to hear the question and very happy to be able to respond to it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So my last supplementary, will the Minister commit if obligations aren't met, that there are penalties going to be put in place so we can ensure that Northerners and northern companies benefit fully in the future? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this too has been the subject of the review itself and is subject of discussion amongst those participating in the various reviews, both during the review formally and since in terms of discussions with businesses and Indigenous governments. There's opportunities both for the potential for penalties. There's also potentially the opportunity for incentives. And I'm not going to commit one way or the other at this point. I'm not going to jump to the conclusion of where the review's going to go other than to say that there does need to be a way by where once an analysis has been done, if someone's not complying with their contracts, that needs to be enforceable. But we also want to be encouraging northern businesses to comply and in fact to even do better, to do a better job of ensuring that they are providing value for residents. That's really been the focus of this entire thing. So in a nutshell, I'm in agreement, and I'm committing to a solution. I'm just not going to jump exactly to what that solution will be at this point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
