Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's Small Business Week. It's the time to celebrate small businesses and their contributions to our economy, and the perfect time to start discussing how to better utilize the untapped potential that this government has to help support our small businesses. We all know that we must diversify our economy, and small businesses are absolutely essential to doing so. However, Mr. Speaker, it seems like, when it comes to big mining companies, this government is willing to bend over backwards, but it often seems like they are barely willing to lift a finger to help small businesses. An advocacy group for small businesses, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, agrees. The annual report card it produces has given the GNWT more failing grades than any other jurisdiction in Canada.
Now, don't get me wrong, Mr. Speaker. I don't want to diminish the good work that the staff of ITI do with what little they are given. My concern is that one of the smallest departments in the GNWT seems to be the only one working to help small businesses.
The GNWT's motto is "One Government. One Voice." Well, maybe I have been working too hard or not getting enough sleep, Mr. Speaker, because I have been hearing multiple voices. Instead of a cohesive, cross-departmental approach to small business development, we have departments operating in silos, with most of them claiming that business development isn't in their mandate. In other words, "It's not my job." Well, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance handles payments and policies. The Department of Infrastructure and the Housing Corporation handle procurement. ECE deals with labour development and training. ITI has business support and diversification units. It sounds to me like small business development is everyone's job.
We have been told that this government has just proposed its biggest-ever capital budget. What better way to support small businesses than by spending hundreds of millions of dollars? Unfortunately, other than putting the projects out there, the government has done nothing to capitalize on this opportunity to help develop small businesses.
Mr. Speaker, it's time that this government develops a comprehensive, cross-departmental approach to small business development. Entrepreneurs are out there every day busting their backs to keep people employed, and it's time that this government stops taking them for granted and gives them the support they deserve. They don't get the opportunity to say, "It's not my job," and we shouldn't, either. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.