Toxic Nunavut dental contract awards to get judicial review

This photo, from 2006, shows the teeth of a Nunavut teenager who did not receive good dental advice or care. (FILE PHOTO)

(Corrected, Oct. 30, 1:35 p.m.)

An earlier version of this story reported incorrectly that Daniel Sojat is a director of NIHS. Alexander Sojat is a director of NIHS and Daniel Sojat serves as operations manager but holds no ownership interest in the company.

Two controversial contract awards that the Government of Nunavut made in 2013 has led to a legal dispute that could create more pain for the government than an impacted wisdom tooth.

That’s because the winner of two disputed dental services contracts is now allowed to challenge the NNI Contracting Appeals Board in court, after the appeal board recommended the firm’s contract be cancelled and re-tendered, Justice Earl Johnson ruled Oct. 21.

On the other side of the issue, two related companies who made losing bids want the court to quash the award to the winning bidder.

The NNI, or Nunavummi Nangminiqaqtunik Ikajuuti policy, is the GN’s tool for complying with Article 24 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

The NNI policy, using a point system, creates competitive advantages for bidders who claim Inuit ownership or who promise to hire Inuit labour.

The winning firm, called Nunavut Innovative Health Solutions Inc. won the contract on June 7, 2013.

NIHS is listed on Industry Canada’s online registry as having a registered office in Vancouver, with Alexander Sojat named as a director.

On its website, NIHS lists offices in Toronto and Winnipeg. Daniel Sojat said in an email that he serves as the company’s operations manager, but does not hold an ownership position.

NIHS had submitted bids in response to two requests for proposals, or “RFPs,” the GN issued in November 2012: one for dental services in the Baffin region and another for dental services in the Kivalliq.

After NIHS got the contract, two closely-related companies who submitted losing bids — VRK Dental Services Inc. and Kiguti Corp. — immediately filed appeals with the NNI Contracting Appeals Board.

Victor Tootoo, who serves as president of both VRK and Kiguti, gave notice of those appeals on June 10, 2013, only three days after the contract award.

Also in June, Kiguti and VRK filed applications with the Nunavut court for a judicial review of the contract award, asking that the court quash the NIHS award and re-issue the RFPs for each region.

Those applications have yet to be dealt with in court.

VRK had submitted a bid to do dental services in the Baffin, and Kiguti had filed a similar bid for the Kivalliq. But the GN decided to give the work in both regions to NIHS.

VRK and Kiguti are partnerships between Tootoo Consulting Corp. and two existing companies that had provided dental services in each region prior to the contract award: Kivalliq Smiles Dental Services Inc. and Aqsaqniit Dental Services Inc.

In the Kiguti-VRK contracting board appeal, Tootoo alleged that GN procurement officials made numerous mistakes when evaluating their bids.

And in a sworn affidavit filed with the Nunavut court, Tootoo alleged that the NIHS firm was not immediately able to provide dental surgery services in June 2013 because they had not yet hired a “dental professional with operating room privileges.”

On the other hand, the Kiguti and VRK firms were already staffed with qualified dental professionals who worked for previous contractors, the affidavit said.

The result, Tootoo alleged in his affidavit, was an interruption in service that in 2013 led to dental surgery being cancelled in Iqaluit for numerous children under the age of 12 in the Baffin region.

In March 2014, CBC North reported that the Government of Nunavut spent $1 million to fly five charter plane loads of children from Nunavut to Churchill, Man. for dental surgery. It’s not clear if that action was related to the 2013 dental services contract award.

VRK and Kiguti also alleged that the GN erred in the way they assigned scores to different parts of their bids.

After a hearing held Sept. 5, 2013, the NNI Contracting Appeals Board found, in reasons for decision issued in October and November 2013, that the GN did make errors and was inconsistent when evaluating the RFP bids.

To make amends for those errors, the board recommended the NIHS contract term be reduced to only one year and that the dental service RFPs for Baffin and Kivalliq be re-issued.

So far, the GN has not acted on those recommendations — and NIHS still holds the contract.

But NIHS went ahead, nevertheless, with their own court actions aimed at quashing the NNI Contracting Appeal Board’s decision. After that, in June 2014, lawyers for the board asked the court for a summary judgment on the issue.

After hearing lawyers from all sides make their case, Johnson ruled that NIHS is allowed to challenge the contracting appeal board’s 2013 decision.

“I am satisfied that the NIHS judicial review applications should proceed and that this court has jurisdiction to entertain them despite the minister’s refusal to make a decision on the recommendations,” Johnson said.

The NIHS application and the VRK-Kiguti applications have yet to be dealt with in court and all allegations made by all sides have yet to be proven in court.