Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Finance certainly welcomes the Minister's commitment to ensure the benefits of government spending in the Department of Public Works, accrued also to improving the northern business climate. The revised Business Incentive Policy is an important aspect of ensuring that northern businesses have a fair chance of succeeding.
I hope the Minister will be very careful to ensure there is no fiddling around with the B.I.P., that it is applied fairly, to ensure its purpose is met. The department has to remember that part of its mandate must be to improve the opportunities for northern business, which will provide more northerners with jobs.
I must say, Mr. Chairman, the Minister, to date, has indicated that he understands that to be part of the mandate, we will be watching to ensure that he maintains that point of view.
Mr. Chairman, just a couple of resolutions on behalf of the Standing Committee on Finance. The first has to do with staff housing inventory. The Department of Public Works manages an inventory of approximately 2,000 houses valued at well over $200 million. This is one of the reasons there is very little of a housing market in the communities.
In the past, there was a need to offer staff housing to attract southerners to move north to run the government. Again, times have changed. The committee questions the need in maintaining a staff housing inventory to continue to provide housing to civil servants. The local housing markets and economic development can be created, and a large one-time infusion of investment capital obtained for public housing or other infrastructure, by selling off the staff housing stock. However, care must be taken so that current markets are not adversely affected.