Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Will the Minister admit that this project was over budget from the original amounts estimated, which was $490,000 and the tender was $795,000? There is a difference of some $300,000. Is there any way to do an investigation on why this project came up so much over budget?
Debates of Nov. 9th, 1998
This is page numbers 309 - 340 of the Hansard for the 13th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.
Topics
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister, Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
There is no requirement to do an investigation. There is no requirement to admit anything. I told you what I said. That building's original budget was $800,000. It was publicly tendered. The low bid was $1.147 million. Through some discussions with the contractor, they got the contract down to $1.066 million. I have indicated to my colleague that there have been a number of discussions taking place in this House and previous Assemblies, the Minister of Public Works has recognized the fact that a number of our projects right across the territories have come in over capital budget and on a number of occasions have had to be cancelled, including schools, including other facilities right across the territories. In this case, this special warrant is because the contract was done in one year, the contractor had to be paid, it did meet all the criteria that MACA and the health department and the standards set for this facility. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Krutko.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you. Can the Minister tell us who the contractor was for this particular project and exactly where they were located?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
The contract for this publicly-tendered facility was Nova Construction.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Community operations. Special warrants, $310,000. Agreed? Mr. Krutko?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just clarification regarding a certain project that was, why was this contract not re-tendered because it came in so high an amount? In the case of, you mentioned negotiations of the project in my riding where it was publicly tendered and the company that got the contract was negotiating and they were $3,500 apart from what the amount was, but the original tender was not anything over $10,000. In this case we are talking $300,000, yet in that case the contract was re-tendered? Why was this project not re-tendered?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
Mr. Speaker, Chairman, pardon me, I do not know why it was not re-tendered. If I may call upon the Minister of Public Works, if he is available, if he can speak to this issue, because I do not have that in the notes. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. The honourable Minister for Public Works and Services, Mr. Antoine.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is a project that was done in Colville Lake. And as Colville Lake does not have any winter roads we have only a small window of opportunity to get the type of material that is required to build a community assembly hall and a health centre. As a government, whenever there is going to be a project in such a place, we organize a cat-train. This is the only place, I think, left in the Northwest Territories where we organized a cat-train. As the last winter's winter road operation had a very short window of opportunity because of the warm weather, late opening and early closure, this was the only opportunity we had at that time to do it. If we were going to re-tender, then we would have lost the window of opportunity and we would have had to not do the project that year. We delayed that project already and with the phenomenonal amount in the last year of some of the projects, most of the projects, that were approved in this House, that were estimated very low by the Department of Public Works and client departments. A lot of these contracts were going over the estimates. We had to weigh all that and work with the client departments of Health and Social Services and MACA. I was told that they were willing to provide extra to the project and we went ahead with the project. Basically, the window of opportunity to get the material in through cat-train was the deciding factor in this matter. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. The allotted time for Mr. Krutko is up, however, Mr. Todd has indicated he wants to expand from here. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
The only thing I would add, Mr. Chairman, because it is relevant, that the additional dollars necessary to
complete this project will be removed from the budget for next year for this department. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. On page 8, Municipal and Community Affairs capital, community operations. Special warrants, $210,000. Agreed? Mr. Krutko?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I find that interesting, the question about timing and the season of the year becoming an issue on this one because that was the same concern we had on the project that was going to go into Aklavik. The tender was finally opened in September and they were expecting people to get this material and construct in October, when the ice was almost ready to flow. The Minister is aware that that was one of the concerns that the company had, that because of this delay they were only given an opportunity of less than a week to try to negotiate an arrangement. Within that time frame was unacceptable, but in this case, I do not see why there was not a postponement or else allow for it to be re-tendered so that people could have had an opportunity to consider the costs of having those materials brought in over the winter road. In this case it was used as an excuse so that the cost of that extra time frame was $300,000 to move the material in. Is that what the Minister is saying?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
I am going to try for the third time. This project was publicly tendered. The number that we finally agreed to was $1.066 million in the public tender process. Mr. Antoine has explained the reasons why the departments moved on this issue, I have explained to you that the additional dollars will be removed from the budget next year from the department and the reason for the special warrant was because the project was completed in one year rather than two. Thank you.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Community operations. Special warrants. Mr. Krutko.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Mr. Chairman, can the Minister tell me how many tenders were received for this particular project?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. That requires some details. Mr. Todd.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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John Todd Keewatin Central
I do not have that detail with me today. I can provide it to the Member or ask the Minister to provide it to the Member tomorrow, I am sure. They have probably got that fairly accessible.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair John Ningark
Thank you. Mr. Minister of Public Works and Services, do you agree?
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Jim Antoine Nahendeh
Yes, I will get the information right away. Thank you.