Thank you, Mr. Speaker; I appreciate it very much. Mr. Speaker, my question will be directed to the Minister of Finance regarding most recent bid on the liquor operations here in Yellowknife.
Mr. Speaker, a local bidder had bid on this project, and they -- their scoring seems to be quite subjective. I wrote an email because of the significant urgency on this. By the time they closed this contract, we don't want it to turn into a legal problem.
Mr. Speaker, by way of example, under northern experience, they got 50 out of 50, Mr. Speaker. But under local BIP, they got 1.8 out of 50. And under NWT BIP, they got 5 out of 150, Mr. Speaker. There's some mysterious concerns with these numbers, and I wish some urgency. Would the Minister pause this awarding of this particular contract to ensure these numbers are correct and all the numbers are correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did acknowledge the email that I got this morning from the Member and thank you for bringing this to my attention.
As with any other procurement matter, I'm not going to be putting these details on the floor of the House. I have already tasked the department to look into it and when we to get a matter where there's some concerns around a procurement scoring, much like a human resource matter, there are avenues and channels by which we can have our staff review it, can have it go through a review. And certainly, until that's been done, Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to be in a position to say one way or the other what may have happened or didn't happen or did happen, but I can say that we will review this urgently. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, although I would like to influence the outcome, that's not my question. My question is about pausing this to ensure there's a rigorous review before an awarding of a contract so there will be no necessity for legal action to work their way through this because, as I highlighted, the details are a little questionable. Would the Minister clarify for the House that she'll ensure the official awarding of the contract won't be done until there's a rigorous review of the numbers and their calculations? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the advocacy on behalf of constituents. I certainly want to ensure that our procurement review -- or procurement processes are accurate and fair. We are subject to procurement processes that maintain our obligations under trade, our obligations for open procurement, and, Mr. Speaker, I'm simply not in a position here today to say where we are at in this particular procurement process. I don't have it in front of me. As I said, this came in this morning. Happy to have it brought to my attention. It's not the first time I've had procurement brought to my attention. But it's -- so it's gone to the procurement shared services now and it really is not one that I want to be interfering with on the floor of the House. I recognize it's an important issue for many residents, and so I want to assure them again that we've sent it forward to procurement to make sure that it's done, and any award is done fairly and that any review is done fairly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, all the Minister would have to say is that she'll issue an email or instructions or whatever language she wants to use -- I don't care, it's fine, I'm fine with that -- that she'll issue some awareness that they need to ensure before they officially award the contract that these numbers are reviewed because it's taken four months, in January to now, for them to find out the details of why they weren't successful, would she be willing to issue that direction to ensure it's issued in the most fair and reasonable way? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the intention around fairness. Mr. Speaker, I -- again, without -- I don't have the details of the procurement here in front of me, as I normally wouldn't. That is a level of operations that Ministers would be inappropriate to get my hands involved in and certainly not here. So, again, I do appreciate the concern for fairness. I certainly can commit that I'll double down on saying to the department that we want to ensure that we are being fair and that we are maintaining and adhering to all of the procurement principles that we have. But beyond that, Mr. Speaker, I'm certainly not going to be, here on the floor of the House and without a fulsome awareness of the procurement details, issuing any directives to the department on this one. I will commit to the Member that we'll follow up as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
