Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over a year ago the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development released draft revisions to the business incentive policy. Since then, he's heard from Members of this Assembly and from the business community that not only do the revisions not fix the problems with the existing policy, but they create even more problems.
The Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight has consistently asked for a cost-benefit analysis of the business incentive policy so Members can make a rational decision about what is really broken and how we should fix it. Without this information we can only guess at the possible consequences of the revised policy.
I and others were lead to believe that the Minister had understood this and had agreed not to proceed with the changes when he said in the House on February 21, 2003, and I quote, "We could probably leave this for the time being and introduce a registry to gauge what the costs are to have the policy in place. So at this point in time the decision is for us not to proceed, but to have a mechanism in place developed by Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development."
Mr. Speaker, imagine everyone's shock when the Minister announced in the middle of the summer, while most Members were in their constituency or away on holiday, that the revised business incentive policy would be coming into force on October 15, 2003. As one of my constituents asked, what has happened to consensus government?
Mr. Speaker, Hay River businesses are worried about the caps that the Minister is planning to have in place in less than two weeks time. To take the construction industry as an example, there are a lot of projects out there that cost more than $1 million. So if a general contractor is able to get a large project, once they've accounted for the first million dollars with northern labour what incentive is there for them to hire local sub-trades for the rest of the project? People have also told me that their businesses will be badly hurt if the policy no longer applies to boards, agencies and municipal governments.
Mr. Speaker, how can the Minister know, without having looked at the costs and benefits of the existing policy, what consequences his changes will have for Northwest Territories businesses? How can he go ahead with this when he knows that there are serious concerns out there that have not been addressed?
Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be directing questions to the Minister and ask him to do the responsible thing, which is to delay any changes to the business incentive policy until his department has the facts and has done something to address the concerns raised by the Members of this House and by the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause