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Coun. Laura Cabott

Council defers motion on bidders’ advantage

City council voted Monday night to defer a motion that would increase the advantage for local companies bidding on work to provide professional services like consulting and engineering work.

By Chuck Tobin on June 16, 2020

City council voted Monday night to defer a motion that would increase the advantage for local companies bidding on work to provide professional services like consulting and engineering work.

The motion was introduced in late May by Coun. Laura Cabott.

She told her colleagues some companies are having a tough go during the COVID-19 pandemic and any additional advantage would be welcome.

But Cabott said at Monday’s meeting she did not have a problem with postponing the vote on her motion to give council and city administration more time to look at her proposal in greater depth.

Five of the seven council members voted to defer Cabott’s motion while Mayor Dan Curtis and Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu voted against it.

Both Curtis and Curteanu said they didn’t think there was an issue to begin with, as information provided by administration indicates local companies are getting most of the professional contracts in any case. There’s no need to try to fix something that isn’t broken, they said.

The administrative report to city council notes the city is required to go to a public bidding process for a request for proposals for professional services when they estimate the contract will be in excess of $50,000.

Managers of the different departments will assign a value they’ll place on local content, depending on the scope of the work and whether the city might benefit from expertise from outside the territory.

“While local purchasing is desirable in principle, there are instances where the consulting expertise needed by the city requires a broader scope and experience than would be available locally,” reads the administrative report provided to council.

“Prioritizing local businesses may not serve the city’s needs in those cases. The Consulting Services Selection Procedures Policy is intended to weight the selection criteria according to the needs of the individual procurement.

“Given that all 2019 RFPs were awarded to local companies, it does not appear that the proposed changes to the policy would be of significant benefit to the local business community,” says the report.

Cabott’s motion calls for the city to assign the maximum 20 points for local content when weighing proposals. If managers wanted to assign fewer points when putting out requests for proposals, they’d need approval from council, according to Cabott’s motion.

The councillor emphasized the policy to assign a value for local content already exists, so there is no need to come up with a new policy.

Assigning maximum value for local content would only benefit local firms in that one area only when the requests for proposals are reviewed, she pointed out.

Cabott said in speaking with local companies, some are struggling in these times of COVID-19, and some may even have to close their doors.

Providing them with any additional advantage would be a benefit, she insisted.

In the wake of the pandemic, Cabott said, Whitehorse will see more interest in local contracts from firms outside the Yukon, and there’s evidence it’s already happening.

Coun. Dan Boyd said he needed additional information before he could agree or disagree with the motion.

Would it be, for instance, on a case-by-case basis, he asked, or would assigning maximum value be applied right across the board for each RFP?

Curteanu said she was having major work done to her home. In talking to the contractor, she’s learned the contracting community is quite busy right now.

She said her preference would be to look at addressing the issue of how much weight should be assigned to local content in the work being done to overhaul the city’s entire procurement or purchasing policy.

The work is ongoing, and includes discussions with the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, she said.

“Current work to develop a new procurement policy includes examination of potential incentives for local procurement, considered within a broad procurement policy context to ensure consistency of the end product for council approval,” says the administrative report.

Comments (5)

Up 0 Down 0

Jim on Jun 23, 2020 at 7:40 pm

Do you notice how private projects seem to come in much cheaper than government projects? Maybe the problem is the government can’t have anything built without there being huge costs. Just count the change orders on the new city mansion up the hill. Who in the city has the experience in managing a project that size? How about the Carmacks rec Center that the outside contractor walked away from. How about the 3 Duplexes in Ross River that basically had to be torn down and rebuilt (by a local contractor). Even the Thompson Center was a disaster by an outside contractor and needed major structural repairs.
I really hope that SheepChaser is not spending too much of the taxpayers money with an attitude like that. We are no different than any other jurisdiction. We have some excellent contractors and a few shady ones. But in my 45 years of dealing with contractors, architects and government departments. The real incompetence is with YTG or City officials who have no concept of construction. Private condo developers are building upper end condos for less money than the government builds 1 and 2 bedroom low cost apartments and making a profit.

Up 10 Down 0

Arnie on Jun 19, 2020 at 11:06 pm

You got it SheepChaser. I used to work for YG and I can't begin to tell you how often local companies would gouge the government. This is why local companies want outside companies barred or almost barred from operating. I mean it's hard to get outsiders to the pub where local competitors can get together over beer and decide who is going to bid high or low on what project and screw Yukon taxpayers. What made me more angry was when the political talking heads at the top would just ignore these obviously too high bids because they were often drinking buddies, or family etc.
In my humble opinion, there should be an audit of large and small govt contracts over the past 20 years. It would be a huge wake up call to the public. I hope it isn't occurring as much with the current government but it could be. I just think that the Premier originally being from outside of the Yukon and then living in Dawson for a while probably means he is less tied into the local contracting 'Old Boys Club'. He probably doesn't feel the need to reward childhood buddies or family with lucrative contracts. Though this could also just be the wishful thinking of an old man. ha ha

Up 1 Down 0

Indirect manner on Jun 19, 2020 at 10:42 pm

Hey Bill, how many buildings have we got now ? Eleven? Remember months ago you were bragging of a nine to one reduction? What do we have?

Up 23 Down 3

Matthew Sills on Jun 17, 2020 at 9:47 am

One thing I did not see addressed in this discussion was the question of definition of a "local business", which is critical to the discussion. At face value it would appear straightforward but it is not. Do you simply require a business licence and a PO box? Do you need a physical presence/storefront? How many months a year must it be staffed. Local preference has its place but it must be clearly and fairly defined, and I see no mention of it.

Up 30 Down 13

SheepChaser on Jun 16, 2020 at 1:51 pm

This will not go well for Whitehorse taxpayers.

Old white boomers already have an economic and political lock on the Yukon. Those businesses provide awful service, poor workmanship and inaccurate quotes with impunity as it is.

Recently, I practically begged a Yukon company to take my money. After a week of failed negotiations with an arrogant and entitled Yukon old-boys-club-type business owner, an outside company is getting the $500k for the project instead. Tons of value-add and a project manager that treats me like family rather than just a wallet to be emptied. This is the third time I've hired from outside after assessing the Yukon options as unreliable (to put it really mildly).

The two projects I hired Yukon companies for turned into fiascos. And these are the companies we're spending public treasure to keep afloat. Just sayin'!

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