Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the Northwest Territories business incentive policy, better known as BIP. The BIP is a policy which greatly extends opportunities in the Northwest Territories. The Government of the Northwest Territories supports the creation, growth and improvement of northern business as a foundation of the Northwest Territories' economy and provides opportunities to northern business with incentives to operate in the North. The BIP allows northern businesses to compete with southern-based businesses and also provides employment to those northern businesses, securing employment opportunities, ensuring that revenues from the northern businesses remain in the North where it is circulated throughout our economy and creates other initiatives.
Mr. Speaker, sorry to burst the bubble; however, it must be revealed that the perfect world of the BIP is often just an illusion. The BIP begins with the criteria that grant northern business status. In order to qualify as a northern business, a business must be majority owed by northern residents and must employ a manager in a storefront in the Northwest Territories. But, Mr. Speaker, the criteria to becoming a northern business are certainly not perfect.
The problem with the BIP is that there are loopholes so that any southern or multinational business with an interest in the North, with deep pockets and a nose to find loopholes, is able to worm itself through the BIP process, to disguise itself as a true northern business and gain preferential treatment from the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, to give an example, Diavik uses services from an electric company based in Yellowknife. The company is classified as a northern firm and involved in many important projects in the mining industry in the areas of design, construction, supplying generation of boiler houses and heating systems, just to name a few. It is approved as a northern business.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.