Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Kakfwi.

Yes.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When the issue of northern ownership came up and it is the definition now that you need to be 51 percent owned to be considered a northern business, but there was also recognition that there are other companies which do not need that provision, which have made substantive commitments to the business community. That is they have invested a considerable amount of money and goodwill in setting up the businesses in the north and that led to the creation of the list that was grandfathered. The list was to recognize the commitment and the contribution that businesses have made, even though they are not necessarily majority owned or even owned at all by northern people or northern businesses.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Erasmus, do you have a final question?

Thank you, then, Mr. Erasmus. I am afraid you cannot do that, we are moving on now to Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Starting with our first question. In your introductory remarks, you stated, in August '94, Cabinet directed the public be consulted, and there was a number of changes that were proposed. I am wondering why has not this gone ahead? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand the first part of the consultation was done, primarily to explain the policy as it was and to listen to the views and comments that the public wanted to advance to the government at that time. The second part of the consultation was devoted to the government coming back with some recommendations and soliciting comments and input from the public in regard to those specific suggestions that were being advanced at that time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You have here that the changes proposed were fundamental and it goes on to list them. Is that what you are going to be consulting on or has that happened? Where are we in that process?

Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The public consultation was concluded last year and the suggested changes were considered too complicated to advance, so we then brought those back to the Legislature and set up a working group to decide what to do from there. Since then, I arrived back here with the report from that working group with the list of recommendations that I listed on page four and what happens next, after general comments and questions, I hope

we will conclude so that we can make decisions. In order to make decisions, I need some time to go forward with my suggestions, alongside Mr. Arlooktoo, to my Cabinet colleagues so that we can make a decision on what to do with the business incentive policy. Once that decision is made, then we will announce it and stand before the Members of this Legislature to explain ourselves. Hopefully, to the unanimous applause of all Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On page four and five of your opening remarks, the changes that you would propose to bring forward, are they the ones listed one through seven on page four? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, on page four I listed the recommendations of the working group as it is contained in the report tabled in the Legislature. What I have said is I will take those recommendations that are listed there, as a Minister, consult with my colleague, Mr. Arlooktoo, and together we will decide which recommendations we will be prepared to recommend to Cabinet to act on in regard to the business incentive policy. I cannot be specific. I cannot tell you which ones I will be moving forward with. I can only tell you that all of them are being considered and we will be making our decision as soon as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I raise my concerns, as I stated earlier, that though we seem to be comparing northern companies to southern companies, this is also used northern versus northern.

For example, in my region of Inuvik, last summer I believe it was, a contract was let out and BIP was involved and the company bidding from the region lost out to a company from this area. BIP was involved in that factor. The company further away received more points for local hire. We definitely need to address this. I would hope that would be addressed in a more timely manner than has been to date.

I have stated on many occasions that we have done enough studies to insulate this building, I think this is going to be another one to it. Hopefully, we can get on with this and try and correct some of those problem areas we have, especially when it comes to northern companies versus northern companies.

I think, as we have heard earlier, that we need to somehow be able to rate companies. If they say they are going to hire 20 local people, how do we know that? Is it because we are dealing with the points beforehand? We are rating people before they have to actually do the work. It is easy enough to say they tried to hire 20 people and nobody showed up to work, so they hired 20 people from wherever. Hopefully, we will address this and especially have a look at the way we begin the process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Was that a question? Perhaps if that was just a comment then we could... Would the Minister like to respond to that comment or should we move on to the next question?

Madam Chair, I did indicate to Members earlier, and I am prepared to do it again, that that is one of the recommendations. Recommendation 3 of the working group. Specifically, how are we going to do it? I am not certain, but we will work with our officials to find a way to ensure that wherever possible in an efficient manner that is conducive to good business, to make every effort to devise a system that will ensure that local and northern businesses, local people, will be hired when our contracts are being carried out. Thank you.