Highways and Public Works Minister Richard Mostyn has again addressed the subject of the 10, up to $1 million apiece local procurement exceptions provided to the Yukon government under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement this year.

The minister continues to emphasize that the Yukon is the first jurisdiction in Canada to take advantage of its exceptions.

In doing so, Mostyn says, it’s keeping $4.4 million in the territory and promoting local economic development.

But in the weeks since Mostyn announced the government will be using its allotted exceptions for the 2017-18 fiscal year, he’s seen questions and criticism in response – and not only from the Opposition benches.

A Yukon contractor, who spoke with the Star last Thursday on the condition of anonymity, expressed frustration about the fact that the 10 projects being procured under the exceptions only total about $4.4 million, out of a possible $10 million.

“They should be taking advantage of that $10 million ... and putting it towards some things that could really help us up here,” he said.

In a March 6 interview with the Star, Mostyn explained that time constraints limited the number of projects on which the exceptions could be used to shield contracts from the typical Outside competition requirements.

Beginning last summer – the Canadian Free Trade Agreement came into effect in July – Mostyn said the government worked to develop criteria to determine which projects the exceptions could be applied to.

“By time these criteria and everything was done, we were already halfway through the year, we only had a certain number of contracts we could apply it to,” Mostyn explained.

“It’s not like you can just conjure things to do that are this much, we had projects in the hopper that we then looked at and said, ‘what would be the best ones we could use that would help the regions’ best, help contractors best, keep money locally best?’”

But the contractor the Star interviewed also had questions about the criteria used to select this year’s 10 excepted projects.

A number of these procurements are for services, he pointed out.

“There’s never been a major issue with local service, unable to compete with down south service, that’s never really been a problem, ever, as far as anybody I’ve ever talked to.”

There are other industries, he said, where competition with Outside companies is fierce, and he doesn’t feel the exceptions have been used to include as many projects in these industries as could have been.

“This was sort of an opportunity to put the 10 tenders out, and give local guys, maybe even smaller guys as well, a bit of a chance or a bit of an advantage.”

He isn’t sure what criteria were used to select the excepted projects, “but it definitely wasn’t used properly, in my opinion.”

Catherine Harwood, the procurement improvements project lead with Highways and Public Works, provided the Star with an overview of this criteria in the March 6 interview with Mostyn.

It included consideration of a project’s potential to build local capacity and encourage development of its sector, opportunity to build capacity in a community that isn’t Whitehorse, and whether a project is in an industry the Yukon government wants to grow.

The full list of criteria was not made available to the Star, however. Mostyn said he was waiting to first share that information with his colleagues in the legislature.

As for the suggestion that exceptions were wasted on projects Outside companies weren’t going to bid on anyways – which the Yukon Party brought up in the house the day prior – Mostyn disagreed.

“We have no idea what’s going on in … N.W.T., Alberta and B.C. There are lots of companies down there that are hungry for work, that maybe they had a bad year this year and they’re looking for smaller jobs, or a new opportunity or an inroad into the territory.

“I know that if I was a small company in the territory, I’d be grateful that we took the (exception) to protect them.”

The minister also faced renewed questions in the legislature last week about what criteria were used to determine the companies that were invited to bid on the 10 procurements.

He rejected the Yukon Party’s assertion that a B.C. company had been invited. He told local media after question period last Wednesday that only Yukon companies defined by the following criteria had been extended an invitation to bid:

• A business that employs Yukon residents;

• A business that owns real property in the Yukon;

• A business that operates year-round locally staffed office in the Yukon; and

• A business owned 50 per cent or more by Yukon residents.

Yukon Party interim leader Stacey Hassard also told the house last Wednesday that, “we have talked to contractors who have had to call and essentially beg, argue and debate with government to get added to that list of invitational tenders.”

Mostyn refuted that suggestion. He expressed confidence in the civil servants working on the exceptions, and told reporters, “I have no idea what the member opposite was referring to today, and I’m not going to speculate on that.

“I haven’t encountered that myself and I haven’t heard those complaints myself.”

The minister said he will expand on the invitational criteria used in an upcoming statement in the legislature, “illuminating that process a lot more.”

He stressed again that regional economic development is being facilitated through these exceptions.

“It’s the first time in the country that it has been employed, it is being done really well, we’re going to assess it at the end ... and do more next year.”