Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would
like to speak to the statement made by the Minister of ITI yesterday, and it’s more in line with the Business Incentive Policy that has been established since 1984.
A lot has happened since then in the Northwest Territories and in North America. More apparent is the North American Free Trade Agreement — better known as NAFTA — which was negotiated between Canada and the United States in regard to free trade. Also, as part of that agreement there were exemptions allowed for jurisdictions in Canada that would have been grandfathered — programs we’ve established in the Northwest Territories by way of the Business Incentive Policy,
the negotiating contracting policies, sole-source contracting policies and other policies this government has implemented to benefit northern businesses and also the residents of the Northwest Territories. We have to realize that by making these changes we may lose more than we gain by losing that exemption, which, again, I feel is very valuable.
Since then we have negotiated land-claim agreements with First Nations government, in which they have negotiated a section called the Economic Measures section, which clearly identifies that those negotiations took place under the emphasis of these economic policies this government had in place when those negotiations were happening.
Again, Mr.
Speaker, this government has an
obligation to negotiate with those aboriginal organizations and make them aware of any economic development programs and services they offer. If they’re going to alter any of those programs, they have to consult with those affected aboriginal organizations that have those agreements in their land claims.
I know there’s an opportunity here to revisit and refocus and look again at our policies and make sure they are working, and where they’re working and where they’re not. These policies may have helped a lot of businesses in the larger centres, but we’re struggling in our communities with the small business construction companies that are struggling to compete against the contractors in the larger regional centres. We have to look at that item.
With that, I will have questions for Minister on this matter later.