Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Yakeleya on June 2, 2004, regarding local business opportunities to perform municipal and community affairs services.
Mr. Yakeleya asked the following questions:
- What are the policies that the department operates under when awarding contracts or supporting local business as it relates to work performed on behalf of the department?
- When will local business be provided an opportunity to negotiate with the department to perform work on their behalf?
- Will the Minister ensure that all regions are advised of any changes in the procedures relating to supporting local business?
- This year, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is providing approximately $49 million directly to community governments in the form of grants and contributions. This amount of funding is over 63 percent of the total appropriation given to Municipal and Community Affairs. Community governments use these funds to provide programs and services for their residents.
In some cases, community governments contract local businesses to perform this work under the authority of community government legislation. Community governments have the authority to spend this money in accordance with their own budgets and procedures. The department gets involved in these contracts only upon request and to provide our expertise.
For projects in the government's capital plan, Municipal and Community Affairs uses one of three ways to undertake work. In the case of major capital projects, the Department of Public Works and Services manages the contracts on behalf of the department. In the case of minor capital projects or major capital projects where the community government has expressed interest and has the capacity, the work is given over to the community government for their management. In the case of specialized, professional service needs such as engineering, planning and training, the department may manage the awarding of contracts, either alone or in partnership with the community government.
In the current year, Municipal and Community Affairs has issued 38 contracts at the community level. Of those, 30
are, or will be, managed by Public Works and Services; at least three contracts will be managed by a community; and up to five contracts will be managed directly by the department. The contracts to be managed by the department are for equipment purchases and a sewage/solid waste study.
All Government of the Northwest Territories contracts are managed in accordance with the government contract regulations. Other regulating documents include the Business Incentive Policy and the negotiated contracts practices.
In some cases, the work is done on an invitation to tender basis with an emphasis of encouraging local businesses to bid. Within this process, there may be opportunities for suppliers to negotiate with the responsible department or community government.
Under the new municipal legislation, which came into effect on April 1, 2004, community governments have new powers to engage in economic development activities in their communities. There may be further opportunities for local companies to engage community governments in discussions in this regard, and companies should be encouraged to approach their community governments to explore the possibility.
As a matter of course, stakeholders are advised of changes to government procurement policies by the responsible department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.