Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 02/04) - Regular MLAs teamed up this week for a show of unity against a government they say appears increasingly inclined to send GNWT business south.

At issue is an NWT Housing Corporation tender request for 22 mobile homes to be built, purchased and dispersed to several communities across the NWT.

Cabinet waved the Business Incentive Policy (BIP) for the tender, citing a need for cheap, quickly-built homes. The tender deadline closes today.

All four Yellowknife regular MLAs, along with several others from elsewhere in the NWT, accused cabinet of having no intention to consider any tenders from within the NWT. "I refuse to be like a mushroom in the dark, living on manure fed by cabinet," Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee protested during her member's statement, Tuesday.

She said there are at least two contractors in Yellowknife capable of building the mobile units within budget and on time, but they didn't have time to prepare a bid.

A select number of southern contractors, on the other hand, have had plenty of time to prepare because the territorial government approached them about the mobile homes six months ago, said Lee.

The tender request was made public only three weeks ago. "One local business is saying he doesn't even need the BIP, he just needs the time to put the proposal together," said Lee.

Don Worrall, president of the NWT Construction Association, said it's doubtful Northern firms could've taken advantage of the BIP if it hadn't been waved because none would've qualified.

To get the BIP, they would already have to be in the mobile home business. None in the NWT currently are.

"I'm not sure why they waved the BIP when no one would qualify," said Worrall.

"(But) if they started talking to us earlier we could've suggested a way to do them up here at a comparable price. There's no point squabbling about it later."

The homes will be shipped up to several communities by barge, where they will be sold at cost.

Housing Corporation Minister Michael McLeod said the homes will mainly cater to professionals working in smaller communities, adding that the government will have no control over the rent charged by the owners.

"They can charge the rate they feel they can rent out for them," said McLeod.

The government has set aside $2.6 million for the 22 mobile units, at about $130,000 each.

He said the short summer period allowed for shipping the homes is the main reason the BIP has been waved.

As for talking with southern builders six months ago, McLeod said they were only enquiring about baseline pricing.

He said despite concerns from regular MLAs that Northern builders won't be able to compete against the southern market, 17 of 30 bids made as of Tuesday were made by Northern builders.

He said cabinet will consider a request from Lee to extend the tender deadline by two weeks.