Seventy six per cent of the
total businesses that have been BIP’d are located in Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik and Fort Smith. They obtain 62 per cent of government contracting in all of the Northwest Territories. Certainly we will be consulting with the Regular MLAs.
I should point out also that the Business Incentive Policy
is only one of several ways to provide
incentives to increase competition. One of the problems we’ve been facing is that several large northern businesses have been bought out by southern businesses and they’re still considered to be BIP’d. Similarly, large construction companies have moved south. There are other ironies; for example, Wal-Mart is one of my favourite places to shop, and it’s also a good business.