Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a philosophical change and I have talked to my colleagues on this side of the House as well, Minister McLeod about his days as an economic development officer in Providence. We know that the amount of money we have available for business development funds and the amount of grants to go out to communities has been decimated over the last 10 to 15 years. We see much less money available in terms of grants, so we had a shrinking pool. Most of the money was being accessed by the larger communities and it became very apparent that the larger communities had easier access to capital, not enough access admittedly but easier access, and that many of our small communities weren't able to get much in the way of business development funding. So we've made a decision that we would target the grants to the smaller communities and try to improve loan access for the larger communities. Thank you.
Brendan Bell on Question 146-15(6): Bdic Business Program Policy Changes
In the Legislative Assembly on August 17th, 2007. See this statement in context.
Return To Question 146-15(6): Bdic Business Program Policy Changes
Question 146-15(6): Bdic Business Program Policy Changes
Item 7: Oral Questions
August 16th, 2007
Page 391
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