Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the BIP, a topic that I know has been discussed a lot around this House in the past week. I have not gone on the record yet and I thought it was time that I did that.
I have to say, Mr. Speaker, that I was very dismayed to hear Cabinet had waived BIP for the second phase of the correctional centre. I do not understand how Cabinet can arbitrarily decide to eliminate a policy for just one project. Either we have a policy or we do not.
The process causes me a considerable amount of consternation because there was absolutely no consultation. I found out about this change in the policy through the construction association bulletin and through media reports. There was no discussion or involvement among those outside of Cabinet. An important and longstanding policy was just waived with no consultation.
I have to ask, how does this waiving of a policy stand us in good stead? The public is already cynical about government and this just feeds their cynicism. When we do not follow our own policies, it just leads to the public saying, "How can they be trusted?"
We are negotiating a new relationship with aboriginal governments. How can they trust us if we can just waive a policy with no consultation? How do they know that we are good for our word at the table if we cannot be trusted to stand up for what is already the policy of government?
How can we negotiate with business? We say we will do a certain thing in a policy and then, out of the blue, we get to ignore it. Will we accept from northern businesses, or businesses operating in the North, that they can start to purchase more from the south because northern prices are too high? I do not think so, but that is the excuse I seem to hear for waiving the policy on the BIP with the correctional centre.
Mr. Speaker, government sets the rules for business and for commerce. One of the key factors that business needs to be successful and prosper is to have a clear understanding of what the rules are and to be able to expect that the rules will be applied consistently.
Mr. Speaker, I call on the government to recognize their mistake and change their approach. Ensure that proposed changes in the BIP are discussed and advice from Northerners is taken into account before making any changes. If there is a problem with a policy, let's discuss how to improve it, but let's not just ignore it on a case-by-case basis. Let's return to consistency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause