Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 17/02) - Over 50 businesses expressed interest in taking part in the construction of Phase II of the North Slave Correctional Facility.

What's intriguing for Northern contractors however, is not just how many companies expressed an interest but how many are from the South.

While the final number of those contractors who submitted bids are not yet available, out of 40 contractors still on the list of potential bidders, only six are from the NWT and the rest are from the south, according to the NWT Construction Association.

Tenders for the project closed July 12

The territorial government cancelled its own Northern preference policy on the Phase II construction of the jail May 27, citing ballooning project costs that were driving it upwards of $40 million to complete.

The original estimates were about $35 million.

Cabinet wanted to see if it could generate more interest from Southern companies, with lower overhead costs, and consequently lower bids for construction of the facility when they made their decision.

Businessman protesting government decision

Keith Houghton, the NWT Construction Association's business incentive policy chair, said he still cannot understand the government's logic when southern companies routinely tender bids on Northern construction contracts anyway.

"They say it's to encourage additional bidders, but they have been getting additional bidders with the BIP in place," said Houghton. "It's normal to have a very high content of Southern companies bidding because a lot of the specialities don't have local people here to do them, so you always have a certain amount of Southern companies in the construction field."

Nonetheless, Houghton, who owns JT Electric, said there are many areas in construction in which Northern contractors do have the expertise.

"We closed the electrical contract (on Phase II), and there's almost seven man-years of work there," said Houghton. "It'll be very sad to see all that go down South."

Bill Aho, the association president and owner of Central Mechanical Systems, said his company is protesting the government's decision and did not submit a bid.

He said he has heard of at least a few others who did the same.

"I guess it disadvantages us in that we don't have the opportunity to work, but it also doesn't give the government that additional price, good or bad," said Aho.

Peter Dunn, acting deputy minister for the Department of Public Works, said the minister, Vince Steen, will be briefed on bids for Phase II tomorrow. "They're preparing a financial management board item for this week, but I'm not sure what the bottom lines are or who bid," said Dunn.