I appreciate that offer from the Minister. You know, this is an area that is kind of a very fertile ground for economic development for Indigenous governments, either through dev corps or other enterprises like that. I know anecdotically, as well, that a number of First Nations have buildings, commercial buildings, that the GNWT does, in fact, rent and, you know, sometimes increases like this are representative of rents that haven't gone up in a decade because they've been basically frozen as a result of a favourable rate to the GNWT and then you get, like, a big kickover like this. So I think we just have to be careful about how we characterize some of these things. Like, it's nice to own and operate our own buildings but sometimes there's a real economic upside, especially in nonmarket-based communities to allowing, especially local Indigenous authorities, to build on their own land and use that land to generate income. It can be a real game changer. And so I wouldn't want to see us, you know, back off leasing as a government without taking those things into consideration of how important it can be as a source of revenue for local authorities when there are limited options and it -- you know, it means we could support Indigenous companies in a different way that's just grants or secondments or things like that, right. Like, we can actually be a client, be a customer, and -- and, yeah, participate in economic reconciliation as a result. So I think the Minister agrees with me on that. And -- but, yeah, I just -- I want to make sure we're characterizing our leasing is not just what has often been said in this House, right, pointing the finger at certain large land holders. I think that hasn't always been good for our reputation as a place that's friendly to business because in the North, sometimes you don't have a ton of competition and a ton of different options to choose from, and I would love to see the space more filled with things like dev corps building commercial spaces and things like that, so we're not building expensive government facilities at very expensive public procurement rates. Instead we can rely on, you know, leased spaces in private sector builds that are far cheaper to operate than building fresh and we can save our dollars for debt reduction or program services, whatever have you. But, yeah, I don't like -- I just want to move away from that implication that, you know, we have bad actors just because they are large businesses that operate in the Northwest Territories. I think that's an unfair characterization. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Kieron Testart on Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 10th, 2025. See this statement in context.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Second Reading Of Bills
February 10th, 2025
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