Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the Business Incentive Policy, which states:

"The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to encouraging local production as a foundation for the Northwest Territories economy and will, when purchasing goods, services or construction, provide an incentive in favour of NWT-manufactured products." Further, the Manufactured Products Policy has the stated objective to "encourage local production as a means to diversify the NWT economy; and foster and maintain the investment, jobs, and income produced by local manufacturing."

These policies are very clear. Yet, our research shows that, when it comes to housing, the GNWT has not had the most successful record of keeping NWT tax dollars in the territory. Local manufacturers have been awarded contracts where scope and required cash reserves would be better suited for large companies from Toronto or a multinational. With these expectations that any one company here in the NWT can be sitting on larger amounts of cash to be able to float the whole manufacturing process, labour costs, delivery, and an inevitable mountain of paperwork associated with GNWT contracts, it is no wonder that we find ourselves in this situation now.

Many who have reached out have expressed the hope that the GNWT would split up the deliverables to accommodate for our smaller manufacturing capacities here. This would also help alleviate the limited cash flow that many businesses deal with to help keep locals employed and money flowing throughout our territory.

We have been made aware of a recent RFP where only one internal component of the requested industrial modular structure was awarded to a single Northern company, with the rest going to out-of-territory manufacturers. Northern business owners have pointed out that the inconsistencies between policy, legislation, and the reality of how this contract went out to tender. I wonder: will the policies and legislation be updated to reflect the standard operating procedures of the GNWT concerning procurement, or will this government continue down the path of awarding RFPs at its own discretion, ignoring the approved NWT Manufactured Products Policy?

Mr. Speaker, there is a policy in place to help ensure GNWT-collected tax revenues stay in the North and help to boost manufacturing and our local economy. I wonder if the Minister responsible for Infrastructure will be able to explain the reasoning as to why the Manufactured Products Policy was ignored in this specific case and if the government has proposed changes that I and our manufacturing community are unaware of. I look forward to his answers later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.