Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question
is to the Minister responsible for the Subcommittee on Infrastructure, Mr.
Michael McLeod. It’s in
relation to my statement earlier with regard to the Business Incentive Policy. More importantly, we have these policies, and we have the ability as
Northerners to receive preferential treatment on different types of contracts in the North and also to be exempt from certain federal and national implications such as free trade. There is also the trade agreement between the provinces and arrangements in land-claim agreements. I think as government we have to realize that sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. It might be that in the long run we’re looking at saving money, but the problem I see is that under the free trade agreement we have certain exemptions because we’re grandfathered with the policies we have in place.
I’d like to ask the Minister: have you looked at the legal and political implications of making these changes through NAFTA, through land-claim agreements and other agreements we have in place that give us preferential treatment?