Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

I think that if the Minister and his engineers are doing some scoping work for other bridges, I don’t think it would take up that much time and energy to look at the Liard Bridge

project. As well, I would like to ask the Minister to consider that when they’re doing their work. Also, just again, I know that any more detailed cost will expend some financial resources and I ask him to consider that as well in the next budgeting cycle, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have to clarify first of all that we are not scoping out any new bridge projects at this point. There are some companies in some communities that are doing some of their own internal work and looking at providing some unsolicited proposals.

To do the work that the Member’s asking is going to be a fairly significant cost and we are not sure where we would get additional resources, especially in the area of engineers and people that do the bridge designs. We are already pretty well at our limits given the capital budget that we have in front of us and given the probability that we’ll be accelerating the Building Canada projects and especially the new dollars that are coming through with housing. It’s really straining the resources we have to accommodate all these projects and so it would be very difficult to accommodate the Member’s request.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it just goes to show you that you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspaper because I never did reference a bailout. It’s an investment fund for the Government of the Northwest Territories.

I do look forward to working with the Minister of ITI as we set out the parameters of what an application-based delivery of the Opportunities Fund might look like. I just wanted to clarify that I didn’t think it was a bailout. I didn’t

necessarily think the Minister did, but I just don’t want the public to be misled out there.

This is actually a lending source available to companies that is unique in a few ways, not the least of which it’s a fairly high interest rate and there’s a balloon payment after a short period of time. Could the Minister, again for clarity to people out there who think this might be a good idea, describe that part of this Opportunities Fund?

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because I’ve committed to working with the standing committees on reviewing the guidelines and the investment policies. Part of the criteria of the fund is that we get investments of $400,000 from immigrant investors for five years and we have to repay the amount within the five-year period. It’s like a revolving fund where we get money coming in and we have to repay it after five years. The conditions are very tight. There’s no provision that...If we have any losses we have to cover it. So we want to make sure that we have well secured loans with good returns.

So before people get too excited out there they should know that it requires a high level of security, it’s a high interest rate, and it’s for a very short period of time. It’s a very short-term loan. I think that’s good for people to know because we don’t want to raise people’s expectations about this. But to that issue of how we as a government might use that money through structures already in place, like the BDIC for example, is it out of the realm of possibility for the GNWT to take that $60 million into their lending capital portfolio and distribute it through our programs on the premise that it would be paid back in four years? Is that a possibility? Because then the criteria, our lending criteria would apply and it might actually help more people.

Certainly that is a possibility and it’s something that we’ve looked at. We’ve essentially put it on hold pending our review with the standing committee. But I should point out that BDIC’s loan loss is at about 14 percent to 20 percent, I believe, so we have to take that into consideration.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just say that there are options out there and we look forward to working with the Minister. We are in a difficult economic time and anything, I suppose, that could serve to stimulate our economy and perhaps help some businesses through a rough patch I think would be good on the part of this government to take initiatives and steps to make that available.

Thank you. I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to follow up on some questions posed by Mr. Hawkins yesterday. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The questions yesterday were regarding the rental act and the rental act regulations and increases in rent. The Minister stated that there is an opportunity for appeal that if there is a rental increase and there is a complaint in regard to the rental increase that they could appeal to the rental officer. But I would like to ask the Minister how he feels this is an avenue of appeal when the Residential Tenancies Act doesn’t give the rental officer any authority, no jurisdiction, in terms of an increase in rent except that it’s allowed once a year? If it’s considered to be a large increase and I complain to the rental officer, my understanding is he has absolutely no jurisdiction. So if the Minister could explain how that could be appealed to him I would appreciate it.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly that’s one of the areas that was established as a rental office area and also have staff to deal with the tenant issues. Whether it be an increase in rent on an annual basis, if they’re not satisfied with that then that’s the avenue that they can certainly file a complaint and the rental officer will certainly look into that. It would be like a mediator between the landlord and the tenant.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m struggling to understand where the authority lies, though, for the rental officer. There’s nothing in the act that I can see which gives the rental officer the authority to declare a rental increase invalid if it’s above 10 percent, say. I don’t know where it states that the rental officer can indicate that’s invalid. If the Minister could reference me to the particular part of the act where that authority is given to the rental officer that would be particularly helpful. And if he has to take it under advisement and provide me with it later that would be great.

Certainly at this point in time we are working on the regulations within the act and we’ll take the Member’s note into consideration. It has been brought to our attention as well. It is something to work with. Especially with the process of having to file a complaint, where

does it go from there. That’s still in the works within the regulations of the act that was passed by this Legislative Assembly.

Thanks to the Minister. It hasn’t been my experience that renters are able to appeal on those particular grounds based on current regulations. So I’d like to ask the Minister, if they’re working on regulations, is it a consideration of these new regulations that are being considered to implement rent caps?

My understanding is that the rent caps have been brought forward by the standing committee and that’s another area we also need to look at, probably not within this act alone. To date, as I stated in the House earlier, there haven’t been any applications brought forward on any complaints yet on the rent increase. So there is an avenue where we can certainly deal with the rental officer. At this point there hasn’t been any application.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I certainly have had applications to my office, complaints about high rent, and I raised it last fall when I had received some applications. I would suggest to the Minister that people are not complaining about rental increases or exorbitant rental increases because the rental officer does not tell them that he has the authority to deal with it. So if rental caps are thrown out in the consideration of regulations, would the Minister be also looking at if not a specific amount, then wording something like fair and reasonable rent increases? Could that be part of regulations?

Certainly with the rental officer it could be just a matter of spreading the word out that he is the one that can deal with all these issues and complaints. To be fair and reasonable, certainly we’ll take that into consideration when we’re discussing the regulations within the act.