I do acknowledge that prompt payment of invoices is really critical to our small businesses in the North. We do have a government set of standards and expectations for the payments of these invoices, but I do acknowledge that that system is not always working properly.
The Financial and Employee Shared Services division of the Department of Finance is responsible for processing and issuing payment for all supplier invoices for goods and services provided to all Government of the Northwest Territories departments, including the Housing Corporation and health authorities. As the Minister of Infrastructure, I can tell you that it is an individual department's responsibility for managing the contracts, which includes timely processing of invoices for payment by our finance department.
If this is an area that the Member feels is lacking, and I have heard from others that it may be, I think that we need to look into including information on the payment terms and that process with our regular workshops that we are doing on procurement, so I will commit to including that in the next set of workshops.