Page 10-35, Tourism and

Parks, Active Positions, information item.

Department of Industry, Tourism and

Investment, Activity Summary,

Tourism and Parks,

Active Positions, information item (page 10-35), approved.

Moving on to page 10-37,

Economic Diversification and Business Support, Operations Expenditure Summary, $17.249 million. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment take immediate action to develop a strategy and programs to promote the establishment of renewable resource businesses that provide food, water, energy and building materials from local resources;

and further, that the department include the strategy and associated programs within its departmental business plan to be considered in the fall of 2008.

Motion is in order.

Motion’s been circulated. To the motion, Mr. Bromley.

Mr.

Chair, the Minister in his

introductory remarks mentioned the investments and the traditional economy and the important role it plays. I thought he had excellent comments there — the role in developing local economies. The value of our traditional economy far exceeds what is evidenced in economic terms or statistics. Further, I appreciate his remarks on the SEED program.

However, we seem, over the eons, not to have successfully focused on developing businesses in these areas, and I think everybody recognizes that we’re now facing an era where there’s increasing costs associated with simply acquiring our basic needs. We find ourselves importing water from Montreal and Hope, B.C. Water that’s even more expensive than gasoline on a per litre basis, and that’s pretty expensive.

These are really opportunities for us to develop our local economies, by meeting some of these needs. But it takes a methodical and focused approach, a

strategic approach. Some of the benefits we can accrue are obviously prevention of the leakage of our financial resources and our skill resources by the import of products from afar and, as I mentioned, the local economic development and the benefits that accrue from self-sufficiency.

So it’s on that basis that I am moving this motion. Thank you.

To the motion?

The question’s been

called.

Motion carried.

We’re on page 10-37,

Economic Diversification and Business Support, Operations Expenditure Summary: $17.249 million. Agreed?

Department of Industry, Tourism and

Investment, Activity Summary, Economic Diversification and Business Support, Operations Expenditure Summary: $17.249 million, approved.

Moving on to 10-39,

Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions, Total Grants, $847,000. Agreed?

Department of Industry, Tourism and

Investment, Activity Summary, Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions, Total Grants: $847,000, approved.

Activity Summary,

Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions — Continued, Contributions. Agreed?

Department of Industry, Tourism and

Investment, Activity Summary, Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions — Continued, Contributions (page 10-40), approved.

Moving on. Next page,

10-41, Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions — Continued. Agreed?

Department of Industry, Tourism and

Investment, Activity Summary, Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions — Continued, Contributions (page 10-41), approved.

Activity Summary,

Economic Diversification and Business Support, Grants and Contributions, Total Contributions, $9.624 million. Agreed? Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just had

one question in this area, and that has to do with the disparity between loans to BDIC, the portfolio… I should say the loans and the dispersal of those loans across the territory. If you look at the statistics, the Beaufort-Delta Region has remarkably less in terms of investments and loan portfolio by the BDIC.

I’d just to hear if the Minister could comment on what the BDIC strategy and the department strategy… to try to even out that dispersal of the money from BDIC, because it’s centred in the south and not up north.

Minister of ITI.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the

members know, the BDIC is an independent corporation, although as the Minister I do give written direction to the corporation. I have met with the board and the chair and the president. I’ve indicated to them that one of the priority directions for us as a government is that we want to see benefits or some business development in every community and region in the Northwest Territories.

So that’s the area that we’ll be moving towards. The fact that currently all of the applications are demand-driven — we will have to work extremely hard to make it more balanced across the Territories.

I thank the Minister for that. I was a

bit surprised when I saw the numbers, because I know there are a number of businesses in the Beaufort-Delta area that are gearing up for the pipeline, and you would think that they’d be accessing some of the loan dollars from the BDIC and that just doesn’t seem to be the case. So perhaps if the Minister, in discussions with BDIC, could relay those thought. I do believe that maybe it’s the case that we don’t have the staff on the ground in Inuvik,

or whatever the case is, but we

should really try to get a better understanding of why the loan dollars aren’t going into that area of our territory.

Certainly we would give

direction to that effect. I guess the only other plausible scenario is at risk, and some uncertainty up and down the valley may be contributing to this as well. I think we’ll give direction to the staff to ensure that we be as proactive as possible when it comes to business.

I just wanted to thank the Minister for

that. I think, just to put it in a little bit of perspective, there were, I believe, 52 loans in Yellowknife, 48 in Hay River and seven in Inuvik, and I think there were 45 or 46 in Fort Smith, a comparably sized community to Inuvik, so there’s a discrepancy somewhere when the loan dollars aren’t being

dispersed across the territory more evenly. Maybe that’s something the Minister can look into.

Thank you. You’ve raised my

curiosity, and certainly I’ll work very closely with my board to try to determine what’s happening there.

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a

question on page 10-40. I know there’s an explanation for that, but if I knew it, I’ve forgotten. Western Harvester Support Program: obviously quite volatile over the years. Can the Minister provide an explanation of that one?

Minister of ITI.

Maybe I’ll just give a bit of

history on this, and then I’ll ask Ms. Magrum

to give

us a little more detail on where we’re at.

Just before division the outgoing government of the day had made a commitment to Nunavut harvesters of $15 million. After division the government of the day felt that we should have a similar commitment for western harvesters, so $15 million was made available to support harvesters. It was initially supposed to be a five-year period whereby aboriginal governments and band governments and so on that supported harvesters could, on a matching basis, draw down this $15 million and provide it for harvesters.

After the initial five-year period there are still substantial amounts of resources that weren’t drawn down, primarily because of difficulty with coming up with the matching amounts. More recently, with more economic opportunities and so on, I think we’re down to our last million or so.

I’ll ask Ms. Magrum to just give us the detail as to where we’re at now.