I thank the Minister again for that. I

am aware of the fiscal situation we’re facing right now. It’s just that this is something I firmly believe is needed, and I think it’s something we could discuss during the business plans in September.

A senior moves into public housing and they’re over 60; I think they pay no rent. I’d like to ask the Minister: who covers the cost of maintaining the public housing unit they’ve moved into? Obviously there’s a cost to it, and I think it’s around $1,800 or something like that per month, per unit. I’d like to ask the Minister: who covers the cost of the maintenance and upkeep on that unit per month?

The Housing

Corporation. There’s no rent or costs billed to the seniors, so this is covered through the operations of the Housing Corporation.

I appreciate the answer. The costs

are eaten by the Local Housing Authority; I think I’m correct in assuming that. I’d like to ask him if there’s any subsidy that comes from ECE, or is the whole cost eaten by the Local Housing Authority?

Those folks who are

eligible for the Public Housing subsidy would have funds flow to them from ECE. The issue with seniors’ housing and no rent was a political decision of this Legislature back in, I believe, 1995 or 1996. The costs have been built into the operation of the Housing Corporation, and the money’s been, over the years, put into the budgets of the districts and looked at yearly.

The honourable Member for

Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr.

Jacobson. The

honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr.

Speaker.

Certainly for our Justice Department and also the Government of the Northwest Territories, one of the focuses is to deliver programs to the communities, the regions. We will continue to do so. Wherever we need to enhance our programs, we certainly are

listening to the people of the North. That’s one area we will be focusing on as the Justice Department.

I think the department should have

considered cuts to the headquarters level before they started touching programs at the community level and regional level.

Can the Minister inform this Assembly as to whether he will consider increasing funding that’s available for the Community Justice committees?

I think that is one of the

recommendations brought forward by the Committee of the Whole, and certainly we will consider looking at those recommendations. Also, we do have a three-year time span as part of our business planning. We have highlighted where we can enhance and improve our program delivery into the communities. Those will be taken into consideration.

That’s really good to hear. Would

the department seriously consider re-establishing my court worker in the community of Tuktoyaktuk?

We will consider all the

recommendations that were brought forward to our Justice Department.

Thank you, Mr.

Lafferty. The

honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too,

would like to ask some questions on the plans for the business incentive program — the BIP. I’d like to give Minister Bob McLeod a chance to respond to some of these questions.

Could the Minister tell us exactly what is in planning for cutback or what changes are being contemplated? I see from the presentation yesterday that he has been requested by Cabinet to implement the recommendation. I’m gathering he must have some firm ground on that. What exactly is being contemplated, just to make sure we’re making our comments appropriately?

Thank you, Mr.

Bromley. The

honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

The GNWT departments, as

my colleague has stated, are seeing that the business incentive program has been having a negative impact on both the delivery of infrastructure and on the price of infrastructure because of the lack of competition. So what I will be doing is undertaking a process by which I would proceed through an orderly process to look at the

BIP with a view to rescinding it and coming up with a way to protect local and northern purchasing.

Thanks to the Minister for those

comments. Am I to understand that this process would include a public consultation or at least some firm and thorough and comprehensive consultation with the Regular Members on this side of the House?

That’s certainly been our

intention, and we have followed that, and we have written to the committee advising them of that.

I appreciate that clarification. Again,

looking at the presentation yesterday, “to generate the required interest, we need to consider removing the application of the BIP from these...contracts” is one statement, followed by “the subcommittee has recommended eliminating the application of the BIP from the GNWT and community government infrastructure projects.” That’s sort of two levels there. And then finally, Cabinet has requested implementation. So I just want to be sure. Can the Minister commit to bringing the Regular MLAs in on this process, and can we expect a briefing from the subcommittee on infrastructure and the opportunity for more input there, something I know we’re very interested in?

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.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

I appreciate, again, the comments of

the Minister. I wouldn’t be too proud about being a favourite shopper of Wal-Mart, myself.

Laughter.

But I really do appreciate the

Minister’s comments and agree that some real innovation is needed in finding ways to protect our northern businesses. Thanks for that. I really appreciate that and encourage that.

Will the Minister include some of the ramifications of things like NAFTA — North American Free Trade Agreement — that’s been mentioned by my colleague Mr.

Krutko, and the obligations we

become vulnerable to when we lose these things that are forgiven because of grandfathering and so on? I’m asking for a very eyes-open approach to this. It sounds like there is a tendency to do that with an attempt to get some real protection and support for the local. I’m sure the Minister will be using full-cost accounting.

I know that Maude Barlow

has

made some comments about NAFTA, but I’m not clear on what the implications of NAFTA are on the Business Incentive Policy. I do know that under the Agreement on Internal Trade within Canada, which all of the provinces and territories have signed on to, we have been able to carve out the Business Incentive Policy. That allows us to have a northern preference for business. We intend to protect that part of Agreement on Internal Trade and also the fact that…. I’ll leave it at that.