Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Guy.
Debates of Feb. 25th, 2019
This is page numbers 4981 - 5026 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd 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 going. View the webstream of the day's session.
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Guy
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that number. It is a number that we would perhaps be able to get by looking to see how many registered persons or businesses are on our procurement opportunities website. That would one way to find that. We could do that, and that would give some idea of what the quantum is, but we don't have a number of how many particular people participate. In any particular organization, there could be a number of employees that could be registered or participating. Thank you.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you. That would be helpful. Can the Minister commit to doing that, and further include to do more of a qualitative analysis of whether or not this procurement outreach is working? It is fine to log participants and meetings, but those are all output-based metrics. If we don't know that 200 participants is statistically important to easing understanding of our procurement policies within the business community, it is just a number. Can the department commit to putting more qualitative analysis towards this exercise and reporting on it annually, either in business plans or some other mechanism that the Minister feels is appropriate? Thank you.
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Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can pull something together for the Member, but at the same time, I think we can offer committee, again, standing committee, we can give them a briefing on procured services and what we are doing and a little more in-detail discussion can take place at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you. Apart from this kind of standard outreach, what other client-facing positions and programs are supported in this budget? The Minister is well aware that I and others of my honourable colleagues have brought numerous procurement issues to his attention, and he does not seem to be aware of them before they come on the floor of the House. What is the department doing to address that? There are a lot of concerns out there. They don't seem to be reaching the Minister's ears. How is this budget improving either a complaint process or some client-facing service officer who can listen to these concerns and adequately move them up to chain of command so that they can get properly addressed? Thank you.
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Wally Schumann Hay River South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member makes it sound like we are in dire straits here in procured shared services, and that is clearly not the case. He and I have argued this on the floor of the House a number of times. The department is working on stuff. We made improvements to the RFP evaluation process. We do mandatory customer service training and fairness advisory training with all of our staff. There are a number of things that we continue to work on, and we continue to evaluate on procured shared services moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you. I wasn't asking a policy question, but I appreciate the Minister's comments. I think there is more room to go. Are there client-facing service officers attached to procurement who can listen to concerns from the public directly? Thank you.
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Guy
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have our front-line procurement officers that answer the phone, answer questions, and deal directly on a day-to-day basis with the vendors and the contractors when they are participating in a procurement process. Those front-line staff are available to answer questions and look into or address any concerns that the vendors and clients have. There are also opportunities through the director of procured shared services. He will often field questions from clients or from contractors around matters related to procurement.
On a more formal basis, working with the Department of Finance, a vendor complaint process was also put in place. Where vendors have issues with the procurement process or fairness around a particular procurement event, there is a formal process where they can bring it forward and get their concerns addressed as well.
There are many opportunities where people can raise their concerns in the department around issues related to procurement. There are also opportunities through the Comptroller General's Office in the Department of Finance, who has ultimate oversight over procurement policies and procedures. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the response. It was very thorough. Where are these positions located? Are they all in headquarters, or are there also regional front-line client service officers? Thank you.
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Guy
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have procurement officers in Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, and, I believe, Fort Simpson. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kieron Testart Kam Lake
Noticing the time, I will just be quick if you will allow me one more question. A lot of the procurement really depends on local knowledge, knowing who the vendors are, knowing what they offer, and knowing what their issues are. Is the department planning on adding additional front-line officers in the regions, especially the new Sahtu region, the Beaufort-Delta? Is that something that the department will consider? Thank you.
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Guy
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What we do is we look at where the resources are required based on the demand, and certainly, in future business plans, if we see a need to have additional resources there, we would bring forward for the forced-growth process to add additional procurement officers in some of those other centres where the demand for the service is there.
We have put a lot of work into increasing our online presence as well and working with some of the procurement software that is being developed with the Department of Finance to make it easier for people anywhere in the territory to access the procurement office and procurement services as well. We are looking at increasing our telephone support as well. Our regional staff, our regional superintendents, also provide a front-line opportunity for regional contractors and regional businesses to access the department as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Herbert Nakimayak Nunakput
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the first line on page 243, on air, marine and safety, could the Minister give a little bit of detail on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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