Mr. Chairman, if I can just answer the four issues that Mr. Dent raised and if there are further questions, I would be more comfortable if I had a witness with me. In terms of the role of the Development Corporation, the Northwest Territories Development Corporation basically has two roles.

One of its roles is to operate what we call subsidiaries in communities where a private venture would not make money, but yet it is possible to operate a venture, a business, with a limited loss each year. The reason for doing that is to create employment in communities where employment would not exist. We do have a number of those that the Development Corporation has been operating for years.

With those subsidiaries, there is no short-term plan to have those necessarily turn into viable businesses. In many cases it is worthwhile and we still do use the figure of $10,000 per job. It is worthwhile subsidizing those subsidiaries in order to generate the employment that is more cost effective for the government than it would be if we were simply to provide social assistance or other forms of support. That is one role of the Development Corporation.

A second role is to provide assistance to ventures, which are running into short-term difficulties. It is normally done through the purchase of preferred shares. In those cases, the Development Corporation enters into those businesses with the intention of having their preferred shares bought out within a reasonable period of time. That is to help northern businesses that are in temporary difficulty but who can be viable as operating entities. Very generally, those are the two roles of the Northwest Territories Development Corporation.

In response to the issue raised with regard to the review that is being undertaken of the Business Credit Corporation, Northwest Territories Development Corporation, and Community Futures, as well as our business development funds, Mr. Dent is correct. The intention there is not just to review the delivery of the programs by each of those entities but rather to rationalize the whole mix of services that we provide through these various programs. The underlying question on that is, is there a more effective way of providing loans, grants and contributions to the various clients who access those services?

The third question related to accountability and the need to be more open. As I said, that one I take under advisement. The way the Business Credit Corporation Act is written, if we were going to change this and be more open in terms of divulging names and amounts and so on, then we would have to have a change to the Act to enable us to do it. Otherwise, we would be relying on a clause that is not meant for that broad purpose. I want to take that under advisement.

I would want to talk to the Chamber of Commerce and to others who represent the business community to determine whether or not they would be in agreement with us moving more in that direction. In the past, we have received mixed reviews from them. A lot of people are afraid that this is just the thin edge of the wedge here. Pretty soon they are going to have all of their affairs spread out. So there are various opinions. I am not saying that is my opinion, but there are various views on it and I want to check that out before making any commitment.

In terms of the review of the Business Incentive Policy, that policy is very important to us in developing northern businesses and it can be very effective if designed properly and administered effectively. A problem with the Business Incentive Policy is the definition of a "northern business" to begin with and then it goes from there.

We have many companies who have been grandfathered, who are no longer really northern entities. We have companies that are no more than a shell. We have companies that have joint ventures that again really are not a joint venture but just using someone's name and paying them off a little bit but claiming it as a joint venture. So there are a whole bunch of questions.

I want to make the Business Incentive Policy work well and I want to do that through measuring the benefits to the Northwest Territories. That includes both employment benefits and benefits to the Territories through investment in the North. If a company invests heavily in the North, then they are truly a northern business, in my view. If they are just using the name, then I do not agree with giving them the level of benefits that some of them enjoy right now. So I want to look at what are the benefits to us as the Northwest Territories in doing that review. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.