Executive Summary Public Procurement Policies

Changing economic and social factors over the past decade have prompted the Government of the North West Territories (GNWT) to review its procurement policies. The GNWT’s procurement policies have not been  substantially updated since 2010.

It is important that GNWT procurement policies strike a balance between  generally accepted principles of public procurement: transparent, fair, and competitive while optimizing the value of the taxpayer's dollar. Broader requirements of Canada’s free trade agreements must be considered when developing or changing preferential procurement policies (although general and GNWT-negotiated exceptions exist that would allow - for example, for the creation of an NWT Indigenous procurement policy). 

The existing GNWT approach to preferential procurement is governed by three key policies: the Business Incentive Policy (BIP), the NWT Manufactured Products Policy (NMPP), and the Negotiated Contracts Policy (NCP). For public infrastructure projects over $50 million, a fourth policy, the Public-Private-Partnership (P3) can also be applied to share risk with the private sector and encourage innovation while targeting local and Indigenous procurement.