Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to also raise some concerns about the government's decision to do an absolutely 180 degree turn on the implementation of revisions to the business incentive policy. Mr. Speaker, over the last month or so, I, like many of my colleagues -- and I know from talking to them -- have been receiving phone calls and letters from concerned constituents and business people across the Territories who thought they had a deal and thought they had agreement on behalf of this government to accurately analyze what these revisions to the BIP would mean to small business, what they would cost. Because admittedly -- and our government has admitted this -- we have no idea currently what the BIP is costing us.
Mr. Dent, in a Point of Order today, spoke about the commitment we thought we had from the Minister of RWED. Mr. Speaker, it's broader than that. I don't think there's a Member on this side of the House that would believe the Minister of RWED decided to implement these changes to the BIP on his own without consulting Cabinet. Mrs. Groenewegen indicated earlier some time in the dog days of summer with Members out in their constituencies, this government decided to do an end run, despite the fact that they were more than aware that Members on this side of the House had all kinds of concerns, the public had all kinds of concerns.
Mr. Speaker, this Cabinet, these supposed stewards of our consensus system, decided that despite our concerns, they would jam it through under the cloak of darkness and it leaves people out there, Mr. Speaker, wondering what could be so reckless and destabilizing about these changes that they need to be snuck in the back door. I think we will spend the next several weeks poking holes in the proposed changes, asking questions that the government can't answer, Mr. Speaker. At the end of that, I hope with some good sense, this government will decide until they have the kind of blue chip information we are looking for, it makes no sense to try to railroad these changes through. Thank you.
---Applause