I would like to ask a few questions about the Development Corporation. Okay, Mr. Chairman, there are quite a number of questions, and I have given quite a list to the Minister, Mr. Chairman, but I would just like to ask a few here now, and, hopefully, I can get answers to my other questions from the Minister and also from a visit I hope to make to Pangnirtung myself.
Mr. Chairman, one real irritating issue from my constituent, which, by the way, is a northern-owned, northern-operated company based in Iqaluit which has not sought heavy government support, but does also want to participate in the development of the fishery and compete against the Development Corporation funded enterprise in Pangnirtung. My constituent has raised one concern I think the Minister is aware of. The company, Imavik, says that, although Imavik is a dealer for insulated boxes used by the fishermen to bring the product from the floe edge, and although the fishermen in previous years took responsibility for purchasing those boxes themselves -- which tends to be the way the industry works in Canada, fishermen are responsible for their own equipment -- last year, a decision was made by Pangnirtung Fisheries, the government-supported company, that they would purchase some 125 insulated fibreglass fish boxes, which they bought and shipped from southern Canada, I am told, at a cost of some $500 a box or around $60,000. That is not a small investment for a struggling small business like my constituent. The concern, Mr. Chairman, is that my constituent says that fishermen were informed at a community meeting first that they could use the new fish boxes and sell to whomever they choose, but after the fact, the management of Pangnirtung Fisheries, the Development Corporation-funded corporation, told the fishermen that they could only sell their fish to the one company. They would not be allowed to use these taxpayer-funded fish boxes to sell to my constituent's buyers. Are these facts correct, as they have been described to me? If so, do they illustrate market disruption by a government-funded enterprise? Thank you.