Welcome to the Assembly. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Enuaraq.

The Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sure the Members of this House would be yelling and screaming at me if there were any layoffs in their communities. Up until now, we have not had complaints from the communities who are receiving transfers. One of the main objectives of community empowerment is to increase local employment by transferring functions and programs to the community level. Through community empowerment, local people have more opportunities for employment. Being transferred from one department to another department is just a different boss. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Enuaraq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will give an example first, before I ask another question. For example, GLO positions were full-time about two years ago, and they were transferred to hamlet councils and municipalities. If that was part of community empowerment, then why are they in half-time positions? Thank you.

Ms. Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I recall the GLO's were already downsized in their previous positions and responsibilities where they were just delivering mail from one office to another office. When the hamlets took over the GLO position, it was through an agreement with the territorial government and the municipalities. We would not have transferred the GLO's to the hamlets if the hamlets opposed it, but instead hamlets were agreeing to this proposal and the transfers. We have given them different responsibilities which might be different from their previous jobs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, the RFP system as practised by the Government of the Northwest Territories seems to be fundamentally anti-market and non-competitive. My question is for the Premier, why would the government use an RFP as opposed to publicly tendering? Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Request for proposal is a public tender process. It is just another process that we use to request proposals of interested parties interested in certain works done by this government. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the RFP is publicly tendered in that you advertise in the paper, but it is not publicly tendered in the fact that we use the public tender guidelines. My question for the Premier is, are the rules for an RFP estimate more fluid than a publicly tendered contract? Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have strict guidelines for requests for proposals and it is implemented by the department that is doing it. It is a public tender as we know what we want built or we know what we want and we request a public tender for prices on it. A request for proposal is when we are not exactly sure how the public will respond. They will not only tell us what they will do, but they will tell us how they will do it and they will tell us the price. Then we calculate all of those things and award. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let us get this right now. The Premier is telling me that we do an RFP, we request a proposal. Then in the paper we advertise it as such. So x-number of firms send in a contract bid on what was requested. Some group decides which is the proposal they want and that is the one that the government accepts. On a publicly tendered contract, Mr. Speaker, the person sends in the bid. At the end of the day, it is published, and tells how many people have bid on it, then who won the contract and what the amount of the contract was. The RFP does not do that. So, my question then is to the Premier, if he can explain the process, what rules and regulations? We already know that in some cases regulations and policies of this government are being circumvented. I wonder what types of rules and regulations are in place to guide the RFP. Thank you.

Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could probably try to explain it over and over to this Member, but I do not know if he would fully understand it at this time. So what I will do is make a full briefing available, especially for him. All he has to do is have the date arranged and I will make arrangements with my competent Minister of Department of Public Works to have that briefing for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in these dark days and these dark rooms and these little briefings that we get, that is great and fine, but I am not the only person asking this question. How about the other 10,000 contractors in the Northwest Territories who put in requests on these RFPs and do not have an opportunity to know what is happening. So, my question again is to the Minister, although I have a problem understanding some of this stuff like negotiated contracts and the sole-sourced which he agreed and now they are publishing, my question on the RFP, maybe he can explain the regulations. Are there regulations and what regulations?

Two questions. Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One thing I learnt very early when I was a Minister in charge of the contracting for this government was if 20 people bid or 20 people took out a request for proposal, I was guaranteed that I was going to make 19 of those people mad. That is just a part of the job, but public tender, once again I will say, is we know what we want. We go to public tender. People bid. We accept their bids and the lowest of those bids gets that. The request for proposal is when we want a function performed on behalf of this government and we request for proposal, not only do they tell us what they are going to bid, they tell us what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. Then we have a committee in the department that evaluates that and it is very strict and straightforward. Then, they award accordingly.