Mr. Speaker, I must remind the Member that I did not shrink from the responsibility. I did take on this task with all of the naivety of a Minister that thought he could deliver all types of only positive, amendment revisions that would be totally supported, by not only members of the committee but all Members of the Legislature and the general public. There is no such creature possible. The present policy has, on any given day, great numbers of supporters and also retractors as well. The revisions, in order to make sense, also requires that the public be quite informed as well as the Members of the Legislature about what the nature of the existing policy is in the first place and to get a fairly accurate assessment, an honest assessment, of what the benefits of the policy have been to date. I know that in many corners some people have been sceptic, some people have absolutely refused to believe that there have been any benefits derived from the implementation of this policy in the first instance. It has been difficult. One only has to recall the discussions at the standing committee stage to understand how controversial and difficult it is to arrive at even some remote assemblance of consensus, on any number of whole range of issues that this policy gives rise to.
Stephen Kakfwi on Question 702-13(4): Status Of The Business Incentive Policy
In the Legislative Assembly on October 16th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Further Return To Question 702-13(4): Status Of The Business Incentive Policy
Question 702-13(4): Status Of The Business Incentive Policy
Item 6: Oral Questions
October 15th, 1997
Page 1632
See context to find out what was said next.