Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When people are working and our economy is booming, the North feels different. Meaningful employment improves mental health outcomes, increase in school attendance, jumpstarts community participation, and decreases social support demand. Our North success is deeply rooted in the GNWT's ability to support northern small and medium businesses that rely on the financial influx of public service procurement.

This past Sunday, Industry, Tourism and Investment completed its second online public engagement session to gather feedback from northern entrepreneurs as part of a comprehensive review of all procurement policies. Their goal is to modernize the procurement process to the benefit of northern residents and businesses.

The most common procurement feedback I received from NWT residents is that northern employment outweighs a southern business with a northern address. In short, Mr. Speaker, keeping Northerners working through meaningful, stable employment is our key to procurement success. As part of its existing procurement process, the Department of Finance provides vendors with an avenue to handle written complaints in an organized, consistent manner using the vendor complaint policy. According to the policy, the Office of the Comptroller General receives an annual report tracking all vendor complaints to improve the procurement process.

Mr. Speaker, this means the GNWT has, at its fingertips, at least a decade of annual reports outlining the unique vendor challenges experienced as well as patterns of complaints within the procurement process. This information adds value to the procurement review process, and I hope it will be used as an added tool to form the procurement review panel recommendation.

This information is not only valuable today, Mr. Speaker. It is also valuable into the future. Policy documents need to be living documents that ensure we are continually learning and improving the services of government. I would like to see a public version of this annual report shared on the open government portal with recommendations to and responses from the government that ensure the GNWT continues to improve its procurement practices.

I hear weekly from Kam Lake businesses about yet another GNWT contract being awarded to a southern vendor. As we review another annual operating budget on the heels of the largest capital budget ever passed in the NWT, we cannot afford to mess this up. We need to get procurement done right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.