Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Over the years, we see southern contractors come in here, and we always think they are going to hire local people. There are promises that they are going to use local businesses. Then, year after year, we wonder why that hasn't happened. We still haven't learned yet. So, I think it is important that we really look at making sure that our contractors are working first and our people are working first. If our contractors need help, then they can slowly bring in the people they need if we don't have them here. If we have to do that, like I said yesterday, through negotiated contracts or whatever we have to use, we have the tools here. We have everything we need. We just have to start using them and not fight about it. I would ask the Premier to make a commitment that we will look at those tools that we have and see the benefit that they will bring in this economy because, right now, the economy is in the dump. The only way that we are going to make sure that our people are working is that we do it ourselves. We can't count on southern contractors to do it for us. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will make the commitment, yes, that we will look at the tools that we currently have to ensure that northern contracts go to northern businesses as a priority. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is getting to be too easy. The other area is the BIP. The BIP is good. It's a good program. It helps northern businesses. However, we have to make sure that the bureaucrats who look after it actually make sure that it is working properly, and we have to monitor it. We don't monitor it, and that's a big problem. We don't have to change anything to do that. We don't have to go out there and talk to people. There are policies in place. All we have to do is do the work. Again, I would ask that the Premier or the Minister of ITI direct the department to come forward, and if there is a reason why they haven't been doing it and why they can't do it, if it's more people they need, then let's look at that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have been hearing I'm too easy, so I would like the Minister of ITI to answer that reply. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize that there is a need to overhaul a lot of the policies and the procurement processes that are being used currently. As I've stated before, I am in my, sort of, collection mode, and I think you can ask most of the business community that I am not turning down meetings with them. I'm meeting with them, and I'm meeting with industry, et cetera, to get that feedback, to ensure that, when I make the changes, I am making the right ones. We're quite busy right now with session, et cetera, so what we have going on is the BIP review. We have the other policy reviews. I'm going to look at the information that is provided by my department, and then I am going to put my private consultant hat on and look at it from a realistic standpoint of somebody trying to bid or get into these policies or use these programs.

While, potentially, it is going to be a little bit of a struggle to get these things moved along, and the procurement process cleaned up, and the checks and balances in place that need to be there, I just ask the Member's patience with me, that it's going to take a bit of time to do so. One of the reasons that I did run was my own frustrations with procurement and BIP and watching companies come in and buy projects, and nobody checked the change orders, which is also about education to project officers or project managers within the client departments as well. What they need to be looking for so that they are a little bit more savvy in recognizing that a contractor or such may be actually trying to buy the work. There's an educational piece within the department -- both departments, because they both have a piece here -- in educating the workers to understand and recognize when the situation is happening, but the checks and balances are missing. I agree. I saw it myself, and all I can say is that I am committed to making those changes, and I know that, if I don't, you're going to be standing up for the next four years and asking me about it. That's my commitment. I commit to you to making those changes.

Also, I just wanted to point that maybe while not normally formalizing a big panel, which is always hard, and like you said, you're not a panel person, one of the things that I really want to do is engage groups who are already set up and running themselves, who have an interest in a certain area. That would be the chambers, like the Premier said, but there is also the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies. They were regularly meeting with procurement. I don't know if that's fallen off since I'm not their president anymore; however, that's one group that I would be engaging. I'd be engaging NAPEG, which is the professional association, the architects association, the construction association. To me, it seems to be a better way to go about it is to go to these groups that are already formed and set up and have a mandate for what they want to see happen and get unbiased feedback from them, without the department's influence. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With all due respect, I'm not about to wait. I need it done right away. Anyway, the other thing is with respect to small businesses. We tend to cater to the bigger businesses, and it's the smaller ones that need to bid on contracts. A lot of the contracts that come out are fairly large, and because of personalities, sometimes, or whatever, some smaller contractors might not get the work. What I'd like to see, and I think that we used to do that, is to break some of the contracts up a bit so that the smaller portions, some of the small contractors can bid on themselves, as well. I would like the Department of Infrastructure to look at that, as well, and make a commitment that, over the next year, we will have something in place. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We discussed this when we were talking in Cabinet about the Cabinet principle contracts for businesses in the North, jobs for people in the North. It was already discussed at the Cabinet table. We are committed to looking at it. There are ways that we can actually break up contracts so that more northern businesses can take advantage. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. I will move on to Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I sometimes think that Rocky and I live in the same place, because we have a lot of similarities between the people who we serve and the concerns that come up in our ridings. I'm going to try not to repeat what he has just said, but I think that these next two pages are some of the most important pages in our mandate document, simply because we heard yesterday from the finance Minister that a lot of our revenue, a lot of our prime drivers of our economy, are money that the government is putting into the economy. If we are reliant on ourselves to fuel the Northwest Territories, then we need to make sure that the money from the Northwest Territories is going to northern businesses. When we're looking at benefit retention, and we're looking at procurement and contracting, this is where we keep the money in the Northwest Territories. This is really important to sit down and talk about.

I was really happy to hear the Member from Yellowknife Centre talk about making sure that the best practices are put together by actual business owners, because with the best intentions, unless you're the ones using the policy, you really need people who, on the day-to-day, are out there competing for contracts to be able to let you know what works and what doesn't work. If we can really empower business owners, and actually listen to them, and make sure that we are 100 percent not wasting their time, because time is quite literally money in that sense, then I think it is a great idea. I would just urge the department to make sure that they're using business time wisely.

The other thing is I'd like to mention that I would like it not just to be associations that we're approaching, because of the fact that we have small and medium businesses that operate without any type of affiliation with associations, especially out in Kam Lake, and I'm assuming Hay River as well, and a lot of our small communities.

The other thing that I would like to mention is in regard to P3s. A lot of people who I have spoken to in my own riding in regard to our most recent P3s have really lost out. Where we have gone to businesses and we have said, "This project is too big of a scale for your operation." Well, lo and behold, we hired a southern company to do the work, then that southern company turned around and hired our local company to do the work, and then our local company had to go and fight the southern companies to actually get paid, some of which have not been paid, and this is years down the road. We're not only hurting Northerners through our P3s; we're devastating Northerners through our P3s, and that's not fair. We really need to make sure that we are protecting Northerners through our P3 projects, and that does not seem to be happening.

As far as the one-stop shop for vendors online, the more time that people can spend in their businesses, the less time they can spend bidding on contracts, the better, because that opens them up to be able to do stuff like mentorships, to be able to further develop their projects, to be able to take people under their wings. The more we can do to make the administrative burden of getting government contracts, the better.

The last thing that I'd like to just ask, I guess, as a question instead of a whole series of comments is: are we willing to review all elements of the Business Incentive Policy? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, when the Member was talking, I was checking with the Minister. We will be looking to get feedback from all businesses, all people interested in providing feedback on this BIP process, the review. Thank you for the comment on the one-stop shopping. Anything we can do to make things easier. I do recognize businesses are hurting. Not only are they busy, but everybody's feeling the pinch at this time, so we need to make things as easy as possible.

What was her actual question now? Oh, yes. Sorry, it was the one I didn't write down, the question. We are committed to reviewing the whole Business Incentive Policy, not just a piece; the whole thing will be looked at in this term of the government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That makes me really happy, that we are willing to review all elements of the Business Incentive Policy. I'm just going to say it: are we willing to talk about the grandfather clause? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will let the Minister of ITI speak to that.

Thank you. Minister for ITI.

Without knowing the legal ramifications of the grandfather clause, I worked for a company that was grandfathered in, and it was ridiculous to me that they were considered to be BIP when they were 60,000 employees around the world, more people than in the entire Northwest Territories, and they were considered to be a BIP company.

I don't know, legally, at this point, what can be done about that, because I am sure that there are a whack of legal issues around it. Maybe Member Johnson can fill me in later. However, I can say, once we start to open that door, these are large companies, so they are all going to say, "Wait a minute," and there are going to be legal challenges with that, I would assume. I commit to the Member that I will continue to have a discussion with you about this as I get more information on what that would mean, to open up that clause. Thank you.