The Yukon Party is concerned that one year has passed since the Yukon courts found that the Yukon First Nation Procurement Policy process was “flawed and opaque and was not fair,” and nothing has changed.

Instead, the government says the policy makes the Yukon a national leader in Indigenous procurement.

The Yukon Party raised the issue in the legislature last week, asking the government to stop using the procurement policy until the problems are fixed.

“We continue to hear about shell companies that have been set up specifically to take advantage of this policy,” said Public Works critic Stacy Hassard.

“We have heard of the bid value reduction system being manipulated by Outside companies to their own advantage.

“Unfortunately, none of this helps First Nation or local companies here in the Yukon. Will the minister agree to suspend this flawed policy and go back to the drawing board to come up with something that actually works?”

The government accused the Yukon Party of not supporting the policy.

While Highways and Public Works Minister Nils Clarke acknowledged there is a perception that people could be profiting from loopholes in the policy, there were “very few specific examples” of this happening.

“… Bid value reductions (under the policy) are resulting in an increase in the number of contracts awarded to Yukon First Nation businesses and an increase in bids from Yukon First Nation businesses,” Clarke said.

He said the Monitor and Review Committee, made up of First Nation and industry representatives, found that in 2022, First Nation businesses won 6.2 per cent of government contracts, for a value of about $48 million.

(The committee also noted in the same report that the “First Nations business definition needs to be updated.”)

Outside the House, Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon made it clear that his party supports a greater role for First Nations in Yukon businesses and government procurement.

“Our question today is: what changes have you made in response to any of these identified problems?” he said.

“And they haven’t made any changes, and that’s of concern to us. We think the current policy is flawed, and we want it to be fixed.”

In the House last Thursday, Clarke said that in the wake of the judicial review, the government “quickly worked with Yukon First Nation partners to make changes to the policy and remove any ambiguity and make it clear that businesses have to be on the registry to access the bid value reduction benefits.”

The Yukon First Nations Chamber of Commerce (YFNCC) administers the registry of verified First Nations businesses.

Those companies can then qualify for bid value reductions from five to 20 per cent under the procurement policy.

Businesses must be beneficially owned and actively controlled by at least one Yukon First Nations person or business to be on the registry.

After a Yukon company was denied its application to be listed, a judicial review last spring found the process used by the YFNCC was flawed.

For example, although the YFNCC used 22 factors to come to its decision, it did not share them with the applicant.

With the perception that shell companies can take advantage of the procurement policy out there, “it weakens the ability of the Yukon government to support First Nations businesses, which is the intent of the policy,” Dixon said.

The Monitor and Review Committee has recommended that the government improve the bid value reductions process, including:

• Providing better communication of how the policy is meeting its outcomes;

• Combatting misinformation
 and misunderstanding;

• Better data collection and increasing accountability for all the parties involved; and

• Contract enforcement of commitments made.

“Socio-economic and cultural changes are long-term endeavours that require ongoing relationship-building, education and communication,” Clarke said last Thursday.