Revisions To The Business Incentive Policy

In the Legislative Assembly on October 22nd, 2002. See this topic in context.

Revisions To The Business Incentive Policy
Item 3: Members' Statements

Page 1066

Brendan Bell

Brendan Bell Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with some reluctance that I again rise today to talk about my concerns with the BIP revision process that RWED is currently conducting. As I mentioned the last time I spoke, if you were to go to the RWED website and try to establish or learn the rationale for some of the things that they are proposing, such as thresholds, you read that "during consultations on these issues the Northwest Territories business community expressed the need for a dollar value cap on the application of BIP bid adjustments."

I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that that varies somewhat from the presentation our main Members' committee heard when it was presented, and I think the case was strongly made that this was due in large part to a need to contain costs.

Mr. Speaker, I re-raise these issues and was looking for minutes of the consultations in order to establish exactly what had been said at these consultation. Of course I got a summary of the minutes, did not get the verbatim transcripts, but I still had concerns because I could only come across one mention of this issue, and one person apparently discussing caps.

So when I asked the question in the House, the Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister did respond to my question, and in response he said, "regarding the implementation of caps within the BIP, I would like to assure you that the BIP review committee did engage the public in discussions on this issue. Generally speaking, the majority of those consulted did not object to the establishment of caps."

Mr. Speaker, that may be the case but that is a long way away from saying that the Northwest Territories business community expressed a need for these caps, Mr. Speaker. We have no way of understanding or establishing, getting any insight into what really happened at these consultations. It is possible that RWED opened up the consultations suggesting, here are many things we could look at and discuss and no one raised objections.

I could certainly concede that, Mr. Speaker. I think this speaks to a real failing in how governments, specifically this one, consults. It is one thing to go around prior to the fact and say, there are a number of issues on our plates, we have concerns with the current process, we know you have concerns with the current process, let's discuss. But then when the government has draft material it is no longer consultation time, Mr. Speaker. They come around and they declare, "We are now in the stage of information sessions, so please sit quietly and listen. We have basically decided what we are going to do and we are now about to tell you what it is."

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent from my colleagues to conclude my statement.

Revisions To The Business Incentive Policy
Item 3: Members' Statements

October 21st, 2002

Page 1066

The Speaker

And the Chair. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Bell.

Revisions To The Business Incentive Policy
Item 3: Members' Statements

Page 1066

Brendan Bell

Brendan Bell Yellowknife South

Indeed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So not only do we have this system of consultation which asks for input prior to draft materials going out, and then suggests that Cabinet has made up this decision that my colleague from Hay River North spoke to earlier, and when you try to contact the department to suggest you have some input and they tell you, "Well we have already decided what we are going to do anyway."

Mr. Speaker, I think in the response they also indicate the rationale for the revisions and they talk about the new BIP being seen to be fair and equitable. I would ask why, Mr. Speaker. Regarding store fronting, it may be fair to southern companies who no longer have to worry about this, but I cannot understand who we would be talking about when we talk about fair and equitable.

They also suggest that it is going to be affordable. Mr. Speaker, this is totally subjective and relative and I think it assumes that we know what it costs now, and of course we do not, because later in the letter they say regarding the cost of BIP, a discussion paper released by our government examines the cost issue and concludes that the current BIP has proven to be extremely difficult to apply quantitative analysis to.

Well, Mr. Speaker, that is not very enlightening. We know we do not know what it costs. I have no idea why. It seems to me we could go down the list of contracts and fairly quickly accumulate this. I certainly do not think that the government has heard the kinds of concerns that people are raising, the Construction Association has been raising, Members of this House and of our committee have been raising, but I think they better start to pay attention or we are going to end up with something worse than we began with, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

-- Applause

Revisions To The Business Incentive Policy
Item 3: Members' Statements

Page 1066

The Speaker

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.