Thank you, Madam Speaker. On Thursday of last week I made a strong statement in this Assembly about companies evading the spirit and intent of the business incentive policy. I specifically focused on an NWT Housing Corporation contract awarded to Nova Construction in Iqaluit. I suggested that the owner of the company is not a resident of the NWT, as required under the BIP, and I also expressed concern that framing work on the job is being done by a southern company, further that materials for that job may not have come up on the Coast Guard sealift as required by the contract, but instead on a private barge.

Madam Speaker, I have since been approached by the local subcontractor, Belleau Webster, and told that my facts were wrong: that the framing job done by Cedarcrest Homes of Winnipeg is only a small portion of the project, most of which was done by northern suppliers and labour; that all the materials for the job were brought up on operation sealift, not on a private barge; and, further, Mr. Mrdjenovich, the owner of Nova, has offered to prove to me that the majority of his time in the past year has been spent in the Northwest Territories, and presumably that he therefore does meet the residence requirements of the BIP.

I will be asking the Minister to present the results of this investigation to this House. To Mr. Mrdjenovich and the principles of Webster Belleau Limited, who are corporate constituents, I pledge that if the results show that any of the concerns I expressed last week were not founded in fact, I will acknowledge that and correct the public record. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause.