Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this opportunity today to share with the Members in this House a situation my constituents are experiencing. They are a very well-established business, 100 percent northern and aboriginal owned. They employ over 35 people, many of them from small communities around Yellowknife. They have established an excellent record as a supplier of geosynthetic material in the North. They have done subcontract work to Tahera Diamonds, Jericho project, Diavik Diamonds, De Beers Snap Lake. In fact, they have been privately and publicly acknowledged for their professionalism and innovative ways in which they work to adapt their material and they know how to best meet the northern climate and the harsh environment. They have also in the past provided materials to the government departments until this latest project on a tank farm.
Mr. Speaker, I think it should be made clear that they're not looking for any special consideration. What they're only asking for is a fair and sensible process. Mr. Speaker, instead, what they have been encountering is what appears to be an orientation set on one specific product by name, although it says equivalent, that their competitor supplies in the North, but a company that employs a lot less northern labour.
Mr. Speaker, the department has admitted that their specs are quite outdated, it may be going back as far as 2000, and that it will be renewed soon. But every step of the way of this subcontracting process, new requirements and new questions are being asked, even after the main contract was tendered. The latest thing is that the department is asking for a 30 to 40-year guarantee for the use of this product from the manufacturer. That was something never done before, even though the supplier of the opposition side, or the competitor, would be producing that from the same supplier.
Mr. Speaker, I'm in discussion with the Minister on this issue, but I am bringing this up in the hope that the Minister and department officials will be open minded in looking at how the tendering process has gone about and whether or not we are living up to the commitment of supporting our northern businesses. Thank you.
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