Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's Small Business Week. Whether you need auto work done, a veterinarian for your little companion, landscapers, metal working, a building built, area cleared, or road built, Kam Lake is the economic engine of the capital city. With that in mind, our priority in this House must be to foster continued economic growth, remain competitive, and create well-paying jobs for the middle class and everyone working hard to join it.
The GNWT must remain committed to helping northern creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs target, explore, and take advantage of global opportunities in key business markets, just like the fine entrepreneurs of Kam Lake have done. I want to give a shout out to a few of these businesses, a non-exhaustive list. Energy Wall, Arctic Farmer, Polar Tech, Paul Bros NEXTreme, Boreal Garden, Ron's Auto, Fiberglass North, CR Enterprises are all fine examples of hard-working northern entrepreneurs that show they have got what it takes to remain resilient and economically viable and profitable in an often difficult economic market.
That leads me to my next point, Mr. Speaker, which is how the GNWT supports its business community through funding. The Minister earlier today spoke about the SEED program and the contributions from BDIC. BDIC has a budget of up to $200,000 for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, and the SEED program is budgeted at $3.866 million. These are great programs, and they are very popular, but they are often oversubscribed. In fact, in the North Slave region, ITI's SEED money has run out; BDIC's start-up money for entrepreneurs ran out within two months of this fiscal year. These are very concerning for entrepreneurs who want to get into the market. It's great that we celebrate them in this House on Small Business Week and throughout the year, but we need to do more than simply talk. We need to put up the capital that they need to get going.
I am glad the Minister is working on this, but we need more than just a workshop. We need to put money into these budgets to further advance the conditions of economic growth that have been so successful in the past, so I will have questions for the Minister, and I hope he has good answers that are more than about studying the problem and actually investing much-needed capital into our private sector. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.