Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the business incentive policy is an issue that has been before us for quite some time now. An enormous amount of time was spent on this issue during the life of the last Assembly. We tried to deal with this business incentive policy in many different ways trying to make changes to it. It was obvious from the discussions that we had with the public and industry during the last government in proposing to change the business incentive policy, that industry was not consulted in the changes that they were proposing. For the most part, they didn't realize where the changes had come from and they were not to address the issues that the northern businesses had issues with.
The contract that has brought this motion forward now that we're talking about was 22 mobile homes, or 42, whichever way you want to look at it, Mr. Speaker, is before us and brought this issue to the forefront again. On this particular issue, in bringing this motion forward I want to speak for a moment on the fact that I am going to support the Minister going ahead with this contract based on the fact that there is a need in the communities. The Executive Council has put a decision forward to do this to meet the demands in communities, however, I would support it to the tune of these first 22 trailers, and I am going to watch very closely and fight for the government to make a decision and look at northern industry, whether it's through a pilot project or a contract of some kind with northern businesses, to be able to build these units in the future in the North and create an industry that can handle that.
I know, Mr. Speaker, that there are many concerns with the BIP. It has been said that the Government of the Northwest Territories doesn't get any value for its money by using the business incentive policy. However, Mr. Speaker, when we dealt with this policy before it was very obvious that the government cannot quantify whether they do get value for money with using the business incentive policy or not. There are many things that northern businesses do by using the business incentive policy that we have to take into consideration when we're trying to determine whether the government does get any value for this policy.
I also heard that companies abuse this policy. But, Mr. Speaker, we have to remember that the policy was put in place for businesses to be able to establish themselves in the North and build capacity in the North. Businesses that have been successful in doing that, Mr. Speaker, have established their business here, they have built capacity, they employ our people, they contribute to our economy and, Mr. Speaker, for some part they have created a competitive base here in the Northwest Territories that in a lot of cases and a lot of contracts that go out take the business incentive policy right out of the picture anyway because it's one northern firm bidding against another one. In those cases, it's very hard to qualify what savings if any or what extra costs the business incentive policy puts to programs and contracts that the government is putting out there.
One of the biggest problems that we heard the last time with the business incentive policy in the last government was the fact that the business incentive policy in its present form is not policed enough, and that's what leads to abuse of the policy. There was nothing in the last set of negotiations that even indicated that there was going to be an increase in the policy, other than creating your registry for the business incentive policy. I think that that is still a major problem with this policy, is the policing of it and making companies and government live up to the intent of the policy when it was first put in place.
So, Mr. Speaker, I bring this motion forward to draw attention of this issue to the government, and I think that
we have to. It's a policy of this government and I think that we have to show clear direction in this and leadership in following our own policy. I know the Minister has said that the policy or guidelines, but I think it goes further than that, Mr. Speaker. I think that we can't use it to our advantage when we want to, and justify that and turn around on another occasion and waive it just so that it suits our needs. What can we do with the policy? I think that the motion speaks to what we can do with this policy. I think that the Minister and the government should look at doing a comprehensive analysis of what this policy is, and I know that there must be lots of contracts out there that they do. Come back to this House and explain to the Members exactly what the costs are, and give us a good reason to either support or not support the policy.
But one of the biggest problems has been all along -- and industry has been asking for it -- is what are you basing your decisions on? Waiving the BIP or making changes to the BIP, what does it cost government, what benefits are we getting, and what is it costing us? I think in looking at that we have to look at a lot of issues, not just the price that companies are putting on bidding on a contract. I think they have to look at the northern content in that. How many jobs are we creating? How much money is staying in the North? I think that those are some of the very basic questions that the government has a responsibility to produce for Members to be able to make an informed decision.
So for my part in bringing this motion forward, I want to force the government or strongly encourage the government to take some action to get some concrete information on this business incentive policy so we, as Members and as a House, can decide on what we're going to do with this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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