Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after my colleagues spoke I thought there could barely be another topic to touch on, but now after hearing the Minister speak before the voting on this motion I could stand up here for a long time and respond to some of the things he said because they, in many cases, are pulling information out of the air which cannot be substantiated.

We talk about the cost and the premium. The reason why we asked for the moratorium for one year so we could collect good data was so that we could see what the premium was on having the business incentive policy. To just add an arbitrary five or ten percent onto the amount of contracts that have been issued by this government is really quite reckless.

When it comes to Northwest Territories communities bidding with each other and they're both 'BIPed,' I mean, I would submit to the Minister that many times there is no premium paid at all because there's already a competitive process that addresses that. What the business incentive policy was intended to do...and I commend the architects of the business incentive policy. I think it was a good policy when it was put together a number of years ago and I think it's served a useful purpose and I think it will continue to. We keep talking about not knowing what the business incentive policy costs us. I would like to, Mr. Speaker, suggest that we don't know what the negative impact of these revisions is going to cost our business community. I would say that there's been very little attention paid to what the ramifications are of these changes that the Minister is suggesting.

I don't know how we are going to undo the damage from that. We talked about our internal trade agreement and the fact that the agreement that we have in place right now was grandfathered. When we start playing around with that and changing that I'm not sure that we can ever have a hope of going back to the original policy that we had.

So I would say that the public consultation that the Minister refers to where his department went out and solicited comments from the community, I would like the Minister to look at this side of the House and the constituents that we represent and the overwhelming concerns that have been raised to him. We represent constituents. We represent business communities. We represent people who have contacted us and, as Ms. Lee said, the contact with our offices on this particular issue has been very substantive.

So I'm really quite amazed at the Minister's reluctance to listen to the Members on this side of the House and to not just do what he committed to do, and that was to collect information for one year. Some of the Members have touched on the message that comes to us with respect to whether consensus government actually works or not. We were quite heartened when we met with the Minister earlier this year and explained our concerns and were granted the concession that he would collect the information for us and would provide that too so we could make an informed decision. All of a sudden this absolute reversal and we've wondered about what the motive could possibly be for it. Now we hear that it is a cost-saving measure. I would again submit that we have no idea what this is going to cost.

I want to raise this subject, Mr. Speaker, with the sub-trades, the $1 million cap on the construction companies. A lot of business that has developed in the North as a result of this business incentive policy was as a result of the more level playing field that was created between companies that provide electrical, mechanical, those types of sub-trade services on construction projects. By putting this $1 million cap on there, I think we are really putting at risk a lot of the sub-trades that have developed and grown up in the North and who have significant overhead and significant payrolls and contribute very greatly to the business community in their respective communities.

So, Mr. Speaker, I don't know what else we can say to the Minister about this. It sounds as if his mind is made up. But this will become an election issue, Mr. Speaker, and I would respectfully request that the honourable Minister, in the days between now and October 15th, consider this again and I would also ask the Premier to allow the Cabinet to have a free vote on this and I would like a recorded vote on this because I believe the business community is watching. They'll be very interested in knowing who in this House supports this business incentive policy which definitely supports the economy of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause