Government of Canada procurement and leasing activity report in Nunavut for fiscal year 2022-23

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• Executive Summary
• 1. Key observations from the data

Executive Summary

The Government of Canada is pleased to release its Procurement and Leasing Activity Report in Nunavut. The purpose of the Report is to inform the Review Committee^{Footnote 1} of the effectiveness of the Directive on Government Contracts, Including Real Property Leases, in the Nunavut Settlement Area (the Directive) and to provide information on the Government of Canada’s contracts, including real property leases, in Nunavut for fiscal year 2022-23.

The objective of Article 24 "Government Contracts" of the Agreement Between the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Area and His Majesty the King in Right of Canada (the Nunavut Agreement), is to provide reasonable support and assistance to Inuit firms to enable them to compete for government contracts. The Treasury Board Directive on Government Contracts, Including Real Property Leases, in the Nunavut Settlement Area (the Directive) is the policy instrument to support the implementation of the Government of Canada’s obligations under Article 24 of the Nunavut Agreement.

The 2022-23 Report presents statistical information about contracts, including real property leases entered into by federal government departments and agencies for fiscal year 2022-23 in the Nunavut Settlement Area (NSA). The Report includes data on federal government contracts (including amendments) valued at $10,000 or more and real property leases (including amendments) valued at $100,000 or more.

For the first time since the introduction of the Directive, a trends analysis of the past three years of data has been included and this can be found in Section 20 of the Report. However, it is worth noting, that with only three years of data, trend analyses are limited.

Summary of key data:

• A total of 385 contracts and amendments to contracts were awarded to both Inuit firms and firms not registered on the IFR for work that took place within the Nunavut Settlement Area (NSA) with a total value of $48,098,893. Of the 385 transactions, 318 were new contracts (including 16 which were contracts awarded and subsequently amended during the fiscal year) and 67 were amendments to contracts awarded in a previous fiscal year.
• $25,265,646, representing 52.5% of the total value of contracts, was awarded to Inuit firms, while the remaining $22,833,247 (47.5%) was awarded to firms not registered on the IFR. See Table 1 for details.
• A major contract, valued at $138,770,788 was awarded to an Inuit firm for support services to Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert. Given the large value of the contract, it is excluded from the calculations and totals in this Report; its inclusion would skew the overall picture and would not be representative of typical federal contracts in Nunavut. This contract, if included, would account for 74.3% of all contracts awarded. This contract should be understood as significant, but not typical of the annual federal contracts awarded in the NSA, therefore it is addressed separately in the Table 1b summary below, under Section 12 of the Report and in Appendix 1.
• A second contract is also excluded from the calculations and totals in this Report because it involves activity in the NSA but also in adjacent regions of Inuit Nunangat where other Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements (CLCAs) apply. Therefore, it may not fairly be reported as exclusively awarded under the Nunavut Agreement and the Directive. This contract was valued at $1,092,263 for the procurement of scientific consultants for the Geospace Observatory Canada Program. The contract was awarded to a firm not registered on the IFR.
• In terms of real property leases awarded, a total of 28 leases were reported with a total dollar value of $10,344,887. Out of the 28 leases, 3 leases were awarded to a firm listed on the IFR. These 3 leases were valued at $756,000 or 7.3% of the total value of all leases in the NSA. See Table 2 for details.

1. Key observations from the data

• In fiscal year 2022-23, a total of 385 contracts, and amendments to contracts, were awarded to both Inuit firms and firms not registered on the IFR for work that took place within Nunavut with a total value of $48,098,893. Of the 385 transactions, 302 were new contracts and 83 were amendments (16 of those were amendments to contracts awarded during the 2022-23 fiscal year and 67 were amendments to contracts awarded in a previous fiscal year).
• Inuit firms were awarded a total of $25,265,646 (52.5%) of the total value of contracts and amendments, while firms not registered on the IFR were awarded the remaining $22,833,247 (47.5%).
• Inuit firms were awarded a total of 163 contracts and amendments (42.3%) of which 142 were new contracts, 9 were amendments to new contracts and 12 were amendments on contracts from previous years. Firms not registered on the IFR were awarded the remaining 222 contracts and amendments (57.7%). Of the 163 contracts awarded to Inuit firms, 87 contracts were competitive ($23,219,826) and 73 were non-competitive ($1,744,548). Also, 8 contracts ($860,248) were awarded via Advanced Contract Award Notices, with 3 contracts ($301,272) awarded to Inuit firms.
• Under section 6.3.1 of the Directive, contracting authorities must consult the IFR to determine the capacity of Inuit firms before soliciting or inviting bids in the NSA. In terms of this requirement, the IFR was consulted in 125 out of the 170 contracts, excluding amendments (73.5%).
  • Inuit firms were identified on the IFR in 101 contracts out of 125 competitive contracts awarded (80.8%).
  • Out of the 101 instances where Inuit firms were identified, notifications were reported as sent in 87 instances (86.1%). See Section 7 for details.
• Of the 87 instances where notifications of an opportunity to bid were reported as being sent to Inuit firms, there were 55 contracts identifying that bids were received from Inuit firms.
  • The overall sum of all bids reported as received was 86 and from that, the number of compliant bids received was 71, resulting in a bid compliance rate of 82.6%.
• Services contracts represent 56% ($26,949,664) of the total value of contracts. Goods and Construction represent 28.7% ($13,812,660) and 15.3% ($7,336,569) of the total value, respectively.
• Of the total dollar value of contracts awarded to Inuit firms:
  • Services contracts constitute $9,148,447 (36.2% of the total value of Inuit contracts).
  • Goods contracts constitute $9,594,010 (38% of the total value of Inuit contracts).
  • Construction contracts constitute $6,523,189 (25.8% of the total value of Inuit contracts).
• There were 132 new contracts, including amendments to contracts awarded during the fiscal year, that met the limited bidding (LB), or right of first refusal (ROFR) requirements established by the Directive, with a total dollar value of $15,263,566. Of these contracts, 60 applied LB ($9,311,312), 22 applied ROFR ($4,795,860) and 50 ($1,156,394) met LB requirements but were reported as not applying LB. See Section 13 for details.
• Inuit and Nunavut benefits reported as realized for fiscal year 2022-23 included
  • 648 hours of Inuit employment reported for a dollar value of $321,426.
  • Approximately 40 hours of Inuit training and skills development, the dollar value associated with this training has not yet been provided.
  • At least two Inuit firm subcontractors for a dollar value of $65,270. See Section 18 for details.