Squabbling over Nunavut government contract awards pits MLA against minister

Here’s what Rankin Inlet MLA Tagak Curley was referring to March 5 in the Nunavut legislature’s committee of the whole: Sudliq Developments Inc. built a heated garage in Coral Harbour so that the fuel trucks used to fulfill its Government of Nunavut fuel contract would stay warm during the winter months. But Sudliq lost the contract last autumn, and despite a favourable appeal from the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti appeals board, didn’t see a new Request for Proposals re-opened. (FILE PHOTO)

What Akulliq MLA John Ningark termed a “spicy discussion” dominated the Nunavut legislature’s committee of the whole discussions March 5.

The subject of debate: how the Government of Nunavut’s department of Community Government and Services hands out contracts within its petroleum products division.

And, at the heart of the long and testy exchange, the department’s minister, Lorne Kusugak, and the MLA for Rankin North, Tagak Curley.

Curley repeatedly questioned Kusugak about his department’s decision to grant contracts to businesses that are only Inuit-owned businesses on paper and, more specifically, about why his department did not re-open the Request for Proposals for the fuel contract in Coral Harbour.

This contract was handed last autumn to the Katudgevik Co-op Ltd., part of the Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. network, after a 100-per-cent owned Inuit business, Sudliq Developments Inc. had held it for 25 years.

After lodging an appeal on the contract award with the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti appeals board against the GN decision, Sudliq learned the NNI recommended the contract be reopened.

But Kusugak’s department decided not to do that.

Curley slammed Kusugak for not respecting Article 24 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement on helping Inuit-owned businesses get government contracts.

Instead, the GN grants contracts to joint-venture companies where Inuit are only partners on paper, Curley suggested.

“The greedy partners, normally non-Inuit, are normally taking off with almost 100 per cent of the profit and the only Inuit ownership, they get to be employed, and that’s not fair,” Curley said.

Kusugak said he hoped “it’s clear that our government is not trying in any way to circumvent Article 24.”

“We put out a public tender and seek the best dollar for the service. I think some people are going to get the contract, and unfortunately, some are not,” he said.

Curley then suggested that Kusugak’s department is lax in seeing whether contracts are respected, alluding to frozen fuel trucks in Coral Harbour.

“Right now, the two are seriously broken. They’re down to one,” Curley said. “I’m not saying that this is a trivial matter.”

That irked Kusugak who said he could “no longer understand what the member is trying to say or insinuate.”

“Based on his questions, I tried to respond properly. We receive monthly reports on the contracts and compliance, review those, but I don’t even want to take the time to answer to his accusations,” Kusugak responded.

Curley also told Kusugak that the government should have re-opened the fuel delivery contract in Coral Harbour after the NNI decision and re-tendered it.

“When there are a lot of mistakes in the contract, the government should not just accept that,” he said.

But Kusugak defended his department’s decision.

“I can state that the recommendations made by the appeals board, we felt that there was a mistake in there, too. We have the right to think that way. I can say that in regard to the fuel distribution contracts and others, when we awarded the fuel distribution contracts, we followed the procedures. We cannot make everyone happy and we cannot please everyone that puts in a bid,” Kusugak said.

Curley also questioned why the transfer of the fuel delivery service in Coral Harbour took place although an appeal on the contract decision was underway.

As a move to diffuse criticism about GN contract awarding, Premier Eva Aariak told the Nunavut legislature last week that officials will conduct a review of the GN’s internal public procurement practice.