Bob McLeod

We’d be quite prepared to work with our partners. We work very closely with the chambers of commerce, with the Northern Aboriginal Business Association and other groups to see if we can set up such a conference or workshop.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is aware of this old saying about great minds think alike. Just last week I had a meeting of my ministerial advisory panel and I posed exactly that question to them, as to whether the businesspeople in the Northwest Territories thought it was a good idea for the Government of the Northwest Territories to get involved with attracting businesses from the South to relocate to the North and whether the Government of the Northwest Territories should develop new programs or invest any money in doing so. We’re still waiting for a response from the...

I think that we’d have to be very careful, because, as I said, we do have northern preference policies for northern businesses. As well, we’ve expended a lot of effort to develop an interim northern manufacturing directive and we would really want to support those northern businesses or northern manufacturers that manufacture in the Northwest Territories, because it’s a high-cost area to operate out of and there are also issues and challenges with regard to attracting skilled labour and availability of housing. When we support our businesses, what we do is focus on the labour issues, reducing...

The initial reaction to the question that we posed to the ministerial advisory panel was that we had to be very strategic in attracting new businesses to the North. That whatever we did should be to meet some specific needs and also would build on northern capacity. Also I know that with the preference policies that we developed for northern businesses, is our northern businesses don’t mind competing as long as it’s on a level playing field, so they would want to see whatever businesses come up here invest in the North and set up their businesses accordingly.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories tourism industry has great potential to help us realize the 16th Legislative Assembly’s goals of creating a diversified economy that provides all communities and regions with opportunities and choices.

With the right idea, proper support and an ample amount of elbow grease, tourism businesses can be successful in every one of our 33 communities.

To support the growth of this important industry, Tourism 2010 was approved five years ago. The plan has served us well and we must now look at how we will build on tourism opportunities in the next five years and...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation, 2009-2010 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think we are fortunate. We also have the Canadian Federation of Independent Business that does regular surveys of all the businesses in the Northwest Territories. We can undertake to work on this so that we can have something by the end of this 16th Legislative Assembly. Also, I think it is very important for us to also look at reducing leakages. We have a number of government programs that go a long ways to doing so, so we will be focusing on those as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly agree with the Member that small businesses in the Northwest Territories are the backbone of the Northwest Territories economy. Not only do they provide a value-added, they also provide employment and growth.

Two of the things that we have to guard against in the Northwest Territories are the high cost of doing business and leakages. One of the best ways to reduce the high cost of doing business is to reduce red tape. The Member quoted CFIB, and CFIB also said that 60 percent of the Members felt that we could reduce red tape by 10 to 15 percent without...

Thank you. We do recognize that red tape exists at all levels of government. It exists at the federal, territorial and local level, and through our different partnerships we will work to reduce it at all three levels. We’ll have to rely on businesses to tell us what some of the more significant red tape is at the federal level, but certainly we can work within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and also with the municipal governments to find ways to reduce this red tape. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as part of our Business Incentive Policy review, we identified that there are currently 1,350 businesses that are BIP under the Business Incentive Policy, and 75 percent of those businesses are in Yellowknife and the five larger regional centres. Currently, we have BizPaL in Hay River and Fort Smith. We are working with the City of Yellowknife and the City of Yellowknife is in the process of developing BizPaL as well. I think that they will bring us a long ways forward if we can concentrate on the other regional centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.