Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Mr. Speaker, the department did a procurement review along with a large engagement with NWT businesses, and I'm wondering when the GNWT responses to the procurement review will be shared be the public, and does the GNWT intend to provide a draft response to standing committee for feedback first? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to have an opportunity to speak about this. Certainly, we're going into the fall session and getting ready on capital planning.
During the public review process, there was some Indigenous governments who had chose to not partake in that process and instead we've been engaging more directly with them in terms of the Modern Treaty SelfGovernment tables, Council of Leaders tables, in order to ensure that all Indigenous governments here within the Northwest Territories are properly involved in this process. So that process is now complete. There was some requests for additional time. But we have all of that information and comments back in now, all the feedback back in now, and so the next stage is, indeed, to prepare a final and formal response that can be shared with the public. And while I don't have the detailed work plan here in front of me, Mr. Speaker, it would usually be practice that we would be sharing things with the committee in advance, and I expect we'll do the same here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the review suggested incremental changes to GNWT procurement policy and processes. So I'm wondering while we don't have a work plan here today with a concrete date, I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what changes have taken place with procurement in the NWT thus far? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there have been some incremental changes, some interim changes already in place. One in particular I want to highlight the Vendor Performance Management Program. There's a few phases to this.
Essentially when we are going to be changing procurement, if we're not monitoring how vendors are doing and how those contracts are unfolding, it's going to be very difficult to ensure that we're either incentivizing or dealing with any lack or failure to deal with what was being said in the contracts. So we've ruled this out first phase last June for construction projects over $250,000, Mr. Speaker. We're now looking toward monitoring of compliance on those contracts. And currently coming up on one year, we'll be in a position now to analyze whether or not and to what extent contractors are, indeed, meeting their BIP obligations.
That's not all, Mr. Speaker. There's also some work happening in terms of onestop shop for procurement information. So, again, one of the concerns that was raised that was raised in the report was about the fact that there's just too much different information about procurement and it lives in too many different houses within the Government of the Northwest Territories. But we do now have a onestop shop dashboard that has GNWT procurement information, contact information, the contract dashboard etcetera. So starting to bring those things into a more unified fold. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before the procurement review of the 19th Assembly, the 18th Assembly did a review of the northern manufacturing policy and that strategy. And from within that strategy, there were a number of actions that were suggested to the GNWT and that were committed to. And within the procurement review that was done in this Assembly, they suggested simply implementing those action items from the northern manufacturing strategy review. And so I'm wondering will these actions will implemented in the 20222023 fiscal year as our businesses and our business owners have spent the time in order to provide the information on the review and do the engagement? So I can sense a frustration in not having that feedback implemented yet. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to look back at the manufacturing strategy and also with looking at that in the context of the procurement panel's review. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that is being recommended in the panel, by the procurement panel was, of course, to have a more integrated and consolidated policy to which the northern manufacturing policy would also then be part of. So to the extent that we are right now at a critical point in that process, having done obviously the public review process, now also an Indigenous government engagement and consultation process, and now looking to put forward some a final response out in public, that would lead us, I believe, in the course of this government to have a more integrated policy and one that can speak to both manufacturing and the BIP and all other elements of procurement and purchasing. So I am looking forward to seeing some further changes in this regard but it'll be one that comes, again, as part of the wholeofgovernment procurement and not something that stands on its own necessarily. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it's worthwhile noting that there's definitely a sense of frustration in that a lot of us in this room came into this House with promises of pursuing procurement reform within the GNWT and a lot of changes that have whether they've come out of the review from this Assembly or a previous Assembly have not been implemented yet. So there's definite frustration out there. And I think if we fail to reform procurement for the GNWT, it's not going to be a success for any of us because I think that maintaining northern benefit is a common interest of all of us in this room.
Mr. Speaker, my last question is the review called for greater transparency and how NWT businesses can get involved in GNWT procurement and greater reporting mechanisms. So does the GNWT intend to address procurement process reporting transparency immediately before we have to wait for more of this review to be put in to place? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, contract reporting is already being improved. The dashboard that I mentioned just a couple of responses ago has just gone live this month so I can appreciate that stakeholders, businesses, may not necessarily be familiar with it yet. Certainly, you know, I encourage them to go and look at that as a resource. It's an opportunity to get more information out and to get it out in one place. But, Mr. Speaker, the real core of what I'm hearing in the last question around frustration, you know, I think everyone understands, and can probably share some of the frustration, these things do take time and they take time to do well. I was certainly, you know, taken aback initially at looking at the work plans, seeing just how much time things would take. But also, Mr. Speaker, I felt also quite a bit a sense of relief.
I had the opportunity, anticipating that this may well be a session where I get questions on the procurement review, to sit down with the team. And at that team, there are members from ITI; there are members from EIA; there are members from Infrastructure; there are members from Finance all across government coming to together on this. It's a huge project. There's seniors members of the government all sitting at that table and now all working together so that all the disparate bits and pieces of procurement are finding themselves a home and are finding one place in a working group that's working well and it's working towards the coordinated goal of having changes in place this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
