Thank you. Total equipment acquisition, $40,000.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Total activity, $4 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Business Development

Thank you. Business development, contributions, headquarters, NWT Development Corporation, total region, $6 million. Mr. Koe.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the objectives I read here, of the business development division, is to provide assistance to existing businesses. Another one is to promote new private sector ventures, as well as technical and financial assistance, and business management expertise to businesses. A total of $6 million in contributions is obviously not only going to one company in one region. I would hope it is not. Would the Minister have a list of where these contributions are going? Would he have that for distribution to Members?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

You mean this $6 million, this expenditure for this coming fiscal year?

Mr. Koe.

Yes, I see a revised forecast of last year, of $6 million, and a 1994 capital estimate projection of $6 million, so I assume that some of them are ongoing. I'm not sure, unless $6 million is going into totally new projects. I would like the 1993-94 revised forecast and the 1994-95 estimates.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I think it is important to point out that, originally, this budget was supposed to be $10 million and it was cut to $6 million. I believe it is $5 million the year after that. It was the intent, prior to us being in a deficit position, to make sure there were significantly more dollars in this budget because we believe that it does a good job of providing employment opportunities.

For Mr. Koe's benefit, we currently have invested in 24 enterprises. I can provide him with a detailed listing of the projected expenditures that are coming forward, approved by, or pending approval by, the board of directors for 1994.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

There is some confusion. I assume all this money is in the Business Development Corporation, the $6 million. Is that correct?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

The $6 million is given as a grant, a contribution, to the NWT Development Corporation. As I said in my comments earlier, the NWT Development Corporation operates at arm's-length from the department. It currently has 24 enterprises that it is funding. I believe it does have a number of enterprises that it is looking at that have either been approved or are pending approval, by the board of directors. I'm prepared to provide those details to Mr. Koe.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

An issue arose earlier this year, in terms of companies owned by the Development Corporation bidding against existing companies for government contracts. I would like to ask the Minister, what is the policy, in terms of companies owned by a government agency bidding against other private companies for government contracts?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

I believe the issue that Mr. Koe is referring to, specifically, is the Arctic Winter Games contract. I'm not quite sure where everybody is coming from on this issue. The fact of the matter is -- if it is the Arctic Winter Games contract we're talking about -- the Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake and Yellowknife entrepreneurs who seemed to have lobbied fairly aggressively were treated, I think, reasonably fair, in terms of the distribution of the dollars and the jobs that come from it.

What our policy is, at this time, we haven't got a clear policy because the Development Corporation is a relatively new thing. I'm not prepared, at this time, to say that it is not going to compete or it is going to compete. What I am going to do is use the example of the Polar Parkas situation, analyze it and try to avoid competing with the private sector. But, there may be occasions where we do, if it going to provide jobs for people who are on the low end of the income scale, and are desperately in need of them, and private sector doesn't pick it up.

Thank you. Mr. Koe.

My question was basically was about the issue of a government agency bidding on contracts let by other government departments. I wanted to know what the policy is, if any. Is there any policy related to that? The Minister went into examples that I was going to ask other questions on. But, the issue is, what is the policy? The Development Corporation is an agency of this government and they are either creating or own companies which now are in the business of competing against existing businesses in the north for government contracts. I just want to clarify that issue. Is there a policy, is there a directive and how do we deal with future issues? The Minister referred to one already.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

The honourable Member is correct. What I have done is provided instructions to the chairman of the Development Corporation to address the issue. I was using the illustration of the NWT Arctic Winter Games uniform as an example. It is my understanding that the Development Corporation will try to address this issue at the next board meeting.

But, I'm not sure that I can categorically say here that the Development Corporation won't, on occasion, compete with other businesses in the territories. I wouldn't want to say that, at this time. I think this is an isolated case. I certainly hope it is. It is certainly not the intention of it. My understanding of the Development Corporation -- the way I see it anyway, as the Minister, and as long as I'm the Minister -- is that it is primarily an instrument to provide job opportunities in areas of high unemployment. I intend to aggressively pursue that agenda.

In the meantime I will ask, and I have asked, the Development Corporation, through its chairman, to address this issue and see if we can come up with an appropriate policy or statement to clarify this particular problem that has been addressed by a number of ordinary Members. Thank you.