Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to say at the outset to everyone, especially the MLA for Baffin Central, I am a strong supporter of the Pangnirtung fishery. When I was Government Leader I accompanied the Honourable Tom Hockin, then Minister of Small Business and Tourism. We travelled by snowmobile to the site of the first turbot fishery. Mr. Hockin subsequently extended assistance to help get the fishery going, and since then it has prospered and has, in fact, been given significant financial support through the NWT Development Corporation.
As Minister of Education, I also worked with the Honourable John Leefe, then Minister of Fisheries for Nova Scotia, who came to Baffin several times to help Inuit fishermen get access to the excellent fisheries training available in Nova Scotia which I think has worked well.
I will never forget Mr. Leefe's advice to our government at that time. He said that in developing our fishery we had two clear choices to make. We could follow the Newfoundland model: very generous government subsidies for over-capitalized equipment and facilities for large corporations. This approach ignores the reality of real markets and real costs and is ultimately doomed to fail because government cannot afford huge subsidies forever. Or, we could follow what he described as the Nova Scotia model which focused on small businesses, inshore operations and reasonable limits on loans and subsidies to respect the real economy.
Recently, Madam Speaker, I have dared to ask a few questions about the policies and mandate of the NWT Development Corporation when it comes to market disruption. My inquiries have been inspired by the concerns of a small Iqaluit-based company in which northern residents have invested their own money. I have been surprised at the defensive reaction of the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. He rather contemptuously described my corporate constituents as a minor player. I would have hoped, Madam Speaker, that the Minister would have more respect for a small business, which is trying to become involved in developing the eastern fishery using their own capital and without reliance on heavy government subsidies.
---Applause