Mr. Chairman, there are guidelines for the small business grants. These are administered out of the regional offices, so anyone who is starting a small business can put in their application, and they can qualify for up to $5,000 as a grant.

We go to, I am not sure if he said diamond contributions, but on those ones, those would go to a committee for assessment. The Business Development Fund, which is made up of a number of different programs, is also administered out of the regional offices and largely through economic development officers. There are a number of different categories and levels of support that are outlined in the guidelines for various levels of support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So basically, in the BDF, the contributions are decided out of the regional offices. What about the $500,000 the Minister said was kept at the centre? Is that sent out of administrable discretion? Is the decision made by the regional offices on all of the money in this budget?

Mr. Chairman, the initial allocation is $350,000 per region, with a balance kept in headquarters. That balance is then, depending on need, reallocated to the regions, and they then make the decisions on how it is going to be spent. We do not administer an economic development fund program out of headquarters.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I noticed that last year, the amount of money in this program was cut in half from the year previous, and it has been left the same this year. I am just wondering if there has been any indication that this has made a difference to business development in the North.

Mr. Chairman, certainly the frustration level of businesses who want to apply and find out that there is not any money is higher now than it was before. We always have more applications, and I think practically in every region, than we do money. We have had to hold a fund in headquarters in order to reallocate it, because we cannot predict with 100 percent certainty where the demands are going to come from.

Clearly the amount that we have in each of these categories is not adequate, given the number of applications and good proposals that are received. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would be interested in knowing what the criteria are for applications to be considered. I wonder if the Minister would share that with the members of this committee?

The reason I ask is that going through the annual report and the Business Development Fund recipients, you see a number of approvals and things like DDC got some money for travel expenses for a chiefs' meeting. It sounds to me like that should probably have been something that aboriginal affairs looked after, rather than it coming out of BDF. Or an airplane was chartered for people to attend a gospel festival. Again, I am having trouble understanding how that ties into a business development process.

I notice that there was a theatre project which was funded. Again, that sounds more like something Education, Culture and Employment should be doing through their grants programs for the arts.

I am just trying to get an idea of just how focused this program is. I really have to question that, given what I see in terms of some of the projects here.

Will the Minister undertake to provide members of this committee with a criteria? I certainly appreciate, with the three that I have just mentioned being provided with, an understanding of how they could qualify under those criteria? If that could be done, I would appreciate it.

I understand that will not happen today, but I would like it in the near future, Mr. Chairman, if possible, I would like it in writing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we can provide a copy of the Business Development booklet, which includes a lot of guidelines and criteria for the various schedules within it. Then, if there is more information needed beyond that, we will be happy to provide it.

Some of the schedules are fairly open. For example, the Member referred to a chiefs' meeting. That is very possible, given the funding that is available for doing feasibility studies. We could fund a meeting of chiefs to look at a drilling program somewhere for gas, or a pipeline meeting. Some of those things could fit within the guidelines as well. We will provide the guidelines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in terms of the follow-up after the money has been handed to an applicant, is there any follow-up to see what the money has been spent on? For instance, for the chiefs' meeting, if it was a meeting on economic development, is there a report that comes back and says here is the result of that meeting and here is what we are going to do?

If you are looking at preparing blueprints, for instance, as I see is one of the projects here, do you actually take a look to see if the blueprints are done after the fact? Or is this once the group qualifies for the funding, they are free to spend the money and there is no follow-up?

Mr. Chairman, all contributions are accountable in the sense of having to show us that they had delivered what they had applied to do. As I mentioned before, some of the schedules are fairly wide open. There is one schedule called the community initiatives program that leaves the discretion largely to the community to determine what the initiatives that are approved might be. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, earlier in my first line of questioning, the Minister stated there were only two organizations within government, and then there is the Development Corporation, that were lending agencies. Are there no regional staff involved in looking at loans and setting them up for small businesses? Everybody who goes through it would either go through the Community Futures Organization or go through the Business Credit Corporation and then outside the Development Corporation, if that were the case? So there is no RWED staff involved in loans and no dollars sitting at the regional or headquarters level that are loan situations? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, there are only two vehicles for it. One of them is the BCC. The other one is Community Futures. The superintendents do assess loans on behalf of the BCC and Community Futures. They can approve some of them, but it all comes back to the BCC and Community Futures.

Under the BCC, the superintendents can approve up to $200,000. Under Community Futures, up to $75,000. Those are the only two programs within the department that make loans. The board has the authority to make loans from $200,000 up to $1 million. That is the same authority for the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So staff, as you stated, are involved. A superintendent can actually authorize a loan that would fall under the Community Futures Organization, or even into the Business Credit Corporation? It just goes to show further that work needs to be done quickly to change the process that is there now. What is the purpose of the organizations if you already have staff who can do the lending, and are doing it on behalf of the organization?

Again, for clarification, there is no money out there that is within the bailiwick of the department, the Minister or his staff, whether it be the deputy minister or superintendents, that would qualify as lending money in their pot, besides that which has been allocated to the Community Futures Organization or the Business Credit Corporation? Thank you.