The Corporate Capital Planning Process annual cycle ends with the Legislative Assembly’s approval of a five-year Capital Plan. All projects included in the approved plan are thereby approved, and the first year funding for each project is typically allocated through an Appropriation Bill.
There are several policies, protocols, and other regulations that govern how and when various details of projects in the Capital Plan are shared with Legislative Committees, the Legislative Assembly, and the public. These include the Executive Council Submissions Handbook (2007) and the Consensus Government in the Northwest Territories: Guiding Principles and Process Conventions, 17th Legislative Assembly (12-01-01).
In addition, the Public Works and Services Procurement Guidelines (2010) regulate when and how information about construction projects is shared with potential contractors.
Generally speaking, all discussions and documents produced during the Corporate Capital Planning Process are confidential. Members of the Legislative Assembly are provided with sufficient information to make an informed decision, but are not provided with specific details of design or overall cost estimates.
To maintain the integrity of the procurement process, these details are only provided to potential contractors and are made available to all potential contractors at the same time.
These confidentiality rules are in place to ensure that decisions are made on the basis of thoroughly reviewed and accurate, relevant information; and that the procurement process is administered with fairness and achieves the best possible value for taxpayers.
Of course, planning does require open discussion with employees and other experts to determine space needs and learn about the availability of new technologies, for example. This usually includes many meetings, with a wide variety of different participants. Senior members of the planning team then consider all of the information gathered to update the plans.
It is important to note that the review and updating of plans occurs repeatedly to ensure that facility plans support operational needs and efficiencies. Information based on input meetings may or may not remain valid and therefore should not be considered final until officially released.
