Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, and it goes back to my Member's statement in talking about the prognosis, I guess, of the business incentive policy. I'd like to ask the Minister what percentage of northern businesses show their interest in a business incentive policy by registering with the GNWT, and I'd like to have those numbers of registered business has shifted or changed dramatically in the last while. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the exact number in front of me of BIP registered business in the NWT, but I can say that the trend has been that there has been a drastic decline in the number of businesses that, in effect, bother to register as BIP businesses. I think there are a number of reasons for this, but one of them certainly is, as the Member has mentioned, the government procurement generally, in terms of our overall GEP, is diminishing in terms of its importance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister, what's the cost of administering the BIP and the cost of any premium paid to award a northern business or contractor, compared to the revenue that will be forfeited by this government if we switch to a tax reduction? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do know that the direct costs to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is about $300,000 in terms of administration, but that is a conservative figure when you consider the fact that all the departments have BIP monitoring committees set up in order to make sure the BIP is properly applied to their departmental procurement. So it is bigger than that. It consumes a lot of our time. We know it consumes a lot of time on the part of small business in order to make sure they're in compliance, and our numbers from the last year we have data for, on $200 million worth of GNWT procurement, there was about a $200,000 BIP premium paid to BIP registered businesses. I would also point out that about half of those are what we consider ex-NWT companies.

So they have a presence here and a presence elsewhere, as compared to just NWT home-grown businesses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, not so long ago there was quite an extensive consultation process undertaken regarding the business incentive policy, and the contract registry was reaffirmed after that by businesses reregistering. Was there any information that was obtained from that consultation round that will give the Minister and his department some indication of how they need to assess business interest in this going forward in a future consultation process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, certainly, from my perspective as a committee member who was involved in the BIP review and watched government's ill-fated attempt to do away with the BIP the last time, I think the one thing that was obvious to me was that if you propose doing away with the BIP and leave a vacuum, you're likely not to get much political support. I think what we've recognized, and I've had discussions with the Minister of Finance about this, that one of the possible options is to replace the BIP with a tax cut for all NWT businesses. A 50 percent tax cut in terms of small business tax rate is one of the options we're considering. I think that's significant; I think it would have an impact not only on those who do business with the GNWT, but on those who do business in the NWT more generally. So this is one of the options we're considering. We think it would go a large measure toward equalling the playing field, and I'm hopeful that the consultations will go positively. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, because the government is paying for a large portion of these houses which are subsidized and the Housing Corporation pays for a major portion of that construction, that's the reason the Housing Corporation wants to ensure that they are in charge of the construction and the management, and doing the inspections on those units, because we do have an investment by way of the loans that are given in which, in most cases, they're subsidized through our different programs where we hold the majority of those mortgages. So because a large portion of the money that is loaned to the client is a subsidy, we have to take responsibility of that asset. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I can see the reasoning they want to follow a National Building Code standard, et cetera, but typically general contractors in the housing business know these codes and they adhere to them or else they would be quickly out of business, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is talking about a policy or a guideline or some kind of directive. Will the Minister provide that policy or directive to me so that I can see for myself what policy they're following? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I commit to that.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm a little bit confused, as well, because in some of our other departments, like the ministry of ITI where we provide business loans, or BDIC, we provide business loans and we let the client be responsible for that money. It's still a government department, but that person's responsible. So I'm not too sure how we can do it for one department and not another, Mr. Speaker. Once again, is that policy or directive, is it an FMBS directive, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it is a directive which is internal in the

Housing Corporation. It's not tied to the...(inaudible)...but I will check if it is, and I'll get that back to the Member.