MLA seeks answers on Nunavut’s award of Kitikmeot medevac contract

(updated Oct. 21, 9:30 a.m.,)

Jeannie Ugyuk, MLA for the Kitikmeot riding of Nattilik, tried hard to discuss the awarding of the medevac contract for Kitikmeot region in the Nunavut legislature this week.

But she didn’t get much information out of Nunavut’s minister of health, Tagak Curley.

Aqsaqniq Airways Ltd., a firm based in Taloyoak, was awarded the medevac contract for the Kitikmeot region this past August.

That company is a partnership between Aqsaqniq Ltd., owned by a group of Taloyoak business people, and Air Tindi, a subsidiary of the air services giant Discovery Air.

Following the award to Aqsaqniq, the Cambridge-Bay based Adlair Aviation Ltd., which had held the contract for more than 20 years, appealed the decision to the Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti contracting appeals board.

The NNi board hears all appeals made about contract awards made by the Government of Nunavut.

The fate of that appeal remains unknown, although the appeals board met Oct. 12 to hear the case.

Now, debate over which company should be awarded the medevac contract is now “dividing our communities and people,” Ugkuk said Oct. 19.

“People whom I have known for many years are calling each other liars. People who are deeply committed to the Kitikmeot are having their integrity called into question,” Ugyuk said Oct. 19. “Information that is in the public domain is not helping to clarify the situation.”

Regardless of which company is awarded the contract, Ugyuk said she wants to see the medevac service “remain the same or improve.”

Ugyuk also said she was concerned about how the Nunavut public views the GN’s contracting process.

“I believe that the government must do more to clearly explain to the municipalities and the general public how contracts are evaluated and awarded,” she said.

In response to Ugyuk’s questioning on Oct.19, Curley would only say that “the contract will continue with Adlair “for another month,” while the appeal process “is being reviewed.”

“Once the appeal has been reviewed, I would be able to make a statement as to exactly how the contracting process turned out,” Curley said. “I cannot state who will be the winning company for the contract until the appeal process has been completed. I will then be able to speak to how the contract process was worked out.”

On Oct. 20 Ugyuk again tried to get more information from Curley about what the RFP for the Kitikmeot medevac contract contained, without success.

Ugyuk also directed questions to Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut’s minister of community government and services, seeking information about what the process selecting the winning bid.

“I have been informed that one of the companies that have been awarded the contract for air ambulance services in the Kitikmeot has been involved in a lawsuit
against the government in relation to the awarding of the air ambulance services contract for the Kivalliq. I have also been informed that one of the government’s senior
officials who were named in the lawsuit was also a part of the review process for the Kitikmeot contract,” Ugyuk said. “Can the minister confirm whether my understanding is correct and can he explain what the government’s procedures are to ensure that its officials are not placed in a potential conflict of interest?”

Kusugak said she was “correct,” but that “our department and this government ensures that utmost care is taken, that there is no conflict of interest in any of these cases, even to be seen to be in conflict.”