Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's my favorite time of the day, question period. I'm always excited.
Mr. Speaker, the P3 initiative, where we've seen examples such as a hospital, have borne fruit and in the future, we may see the Slave Geological road, or certainly the Taltson, find this route. But one of the challenges of a P3 project is it falls under the management framework and, of course, it has procurement challenges, even the special panel that reviewed it saw. So when it comes to specifically for the purchase of goods by supply, my question to the finance Minister is, is can the finance Minister look at working with their P3 partners to ensure that these types of businesses are supported in the similar manner as the BIP policy does? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we certainly do work with P3 partners, and individual P3 projects that exist right now have different parameters and different contracts to them. Certainly going forward, if there was a future P3, of which there's none contemplated at the present date, we can work to ensure that we are doing that in the best way forward, keeping in mind the priorities of the government and at that point I think that would include whatever type of arrangements would be negotiated to with that P3 partner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the management policy looks at construction, but it doesn't look postconstruction, how they intertwine, the relationship between P3s and local northern suppliers. And it was even noted during the review of it is it has caused nothing but problems for people looking for local opportunities.
So my question for her is what can the Minister currently do about the current P3 project to ensure that northern suppliers have a chance on bidding rather than just going south to buy their goods and keeping Northerners out of the game?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the P3 projects we have right now is with the Tlicho government on the TASR road. Another one would be at Stanton. And both of those projects, Mr. Speaker, I believe are under current contractual arrangements. So short of breaching our contract, which certainly the Government of the Northwest Territories does not want to do, I would not try to enter into some sort of renegotiation of what is existing, P3 project contracts do, time to time, come for renewal or for renegotiation and at that point we can certainly look at the contents thereof and ensure that they continue to align with the priorities of the government. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, these contracts aren't one or two years and local suppliers, whether they're born in Hay River or they were born in Yellowknife or even Inuvik, the fact is they're waiting a lifetime for them to finish. So would the Minister be willing to use her influence as Minister to go talk to these P3 contractors to ask them how we can ensure local northern businesses who supply local labour, those people live here and work here, get a chance to ensure that these businesses are able to be maintained, established, working and supporting our community as they are. So would the Minister be willing to go talk to them to find ways to make this work?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I missed one earlier, Mr. Speaker. There's also the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link. So that, along with Stanton and the Tlicho AllSeason Road, are the current three P3 projects that are in their operating phase, and different departments are responsible for each finance, infrastructure, health and social services, and we certainly, I would expect, remain in contact with the three party all of the parties that are involved as we are P3 partners, and we'll continue to have conversations with them to make sure that we are providing the services as contemplated in those arrangements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
So thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the government talks about wanting to no surprises and work together and they get the topic in advance when I ask questions, they should come with some answers. And my question, really, is built around the fact that I'm asking what is the Minister doing to work with this? We have constituents and businesses that are at significant risk when these P3 projects decide well, we're going to get all our goods, not some of our goods, all our goods down south. And these are lifetime contracts, Mr. Speaker. So if they're going to wait to supply whether it's paper towel, toilet paper, or even hand soap, they could be waiting 25 years to be responses. So I'm asking the Minister one last time to be clear, what can she do and what is she willing to do to ensure that there's some type of relationship with northern suppliers? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, let's just be clear. I had no notice of these questions. I don't know what phone number this Member's using but I had no idea these were coming today. So this is a surprise to me.
On top of that, Mr. Speaker, these are not lifetime contracts. They are limited period contracts. And, in fact, one, I believe, is coming up for renewal in 2027, which is not that far away. When those contracts come up for renewal, as I've already said, we are certainly happy to look at them and ensure that they continue to meet the needs of the Northwest Territories residents that they're serve something, whether it's Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link, whether it's the Stanton Territorial Hospital, whether it's the Tlicho AllSeason Road, as they come for renewal and as we continue to have them effective for the residents, we will continue to make sure that those contracts continue to serve our needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
