Mr. Speaker, the whole business incentive policy debate has been going on for quite a number of years now, and there has been a lot of work done by the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development over the past three years. We looked at the business incentive policy, we did extensive and comprehensive consultation with government and industry over this period of three years, and we're trying to get support to make some changes to the business incentive policy. We've gone through the process that we have with the AOC, and I guess the last attempt was in March when I appeared before the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight and we had discussions on the proposed business incentive policy.
As a result of that, AOC recommended that we begin tracking the costs and benefits of BIP and re-evaluate the policy in one year. AOC would also like to extend the evaluation to agencies such as housing authorities and boards. So the review of BIP was initiated in response to concerns. It has been operating for 18 years and there were about six major changes that we proposed in the policy.
One of them was the definition of business incentive policy and businesses which will emphasize the contribution to the economy through Northwest Territories employment, allocation of payroll, personnel, and/or corporate taxes. So we wanted to make some changes in the definition of the business incentive policy. But in March, I was told by the MLAs on the other side and AOC that they didn't want to move forward with this at this point in time, so that's where we are. So we did our work and we just need support from MLAs to make the business incentive policy truly work for northern businesses. Thank you.