Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not envision BDIC going away. I have met with them a number of times. We have our five-year program review that is going to be taking place right now. We have met with them, and they are quite excited about doing that.

Times have changed since BDIC was incorporated, and the business community has changed significantly. We anticipate doing a review and coming back to committee on how we can see this thing operating in the future, going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding from stakeholder engagement is that the program review is not really the issue. Most clients are satisfied with the level of service of the programs the BDIC offers. The issue the government seems to take is the operational side, that the appropriation to BDIC is in excess of what it needs to do its job. Is the Minister also undertaking an operational review to restructure the corporation to be more cost-effective? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program review will look at the operations review, but we are building a terms of reference, and we will probably share that with committee once we have them done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have spoken about this before, but BDIC performs an important role in supporting businesses in the Northwest Territories, providing advice to those companies and those individuals who are interested in getting involved and, of course, through its lending programs.

Looking at the information item, which is included later in the business review, on page 227, we see some of their operating results, and they seem to generate a significant amount of surplus. My understanding is that they cannot access that surplus under the terms of the current legislation. Is the Minister planning to do anything about that? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is one of the things that we are looking at, and the Member is onto it. There is money that they can use right now for certain things and money that they cannot. That would be the proposed legislation, once we do the review, that we would want to come back to the Assembly and change so that they could do that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

That money the Minister just referred to or those financial resources, does the BDIC have access to those own-source revenues, essentially, to plug the gap that has been created by successive years of cuts to their appropriation? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. Right now, they have access to their excess gas for operations. We would have to come forward for the legislative change to be able to use the interests. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. The legislative change that is required, when does the Minister anticipate bringing that forward?

Thank you. Minister.

The May-June session. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. The Minister also mentioned a program review and that the review would help identify the need to change legislation and other issues. Is the review going to be completed before the legislation comes forward in May and June? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The regulations that we want to come forward in the May-June sessions, the regulations have not been updated for a long time; we want to be able to make this change so that they can use that going forward. As far as the program review and the operations of that, we don't need to have that done to be able to do that, so they can continue to operate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Testart.

Regulations and legislation are of course different. I am just wondering: are we talking about legislative change or regulatory change? The Minister can change the regulations today if he wanted to. Can the Minister clarify? Thank you.

Minister.