Brendan Bell

Mr. Speaker, the amount of our loan portfolio continues to grow. I don’t have a specific number here, but I believe the portfolio under the BDIC is in the $40 million range. That is up significantly, so we are getting more money out to our communities. The Member, in her statement, talked about the personal limits set now at $2 million for any one business or ownership group. We’ve had a lot of discussion around that. Our concern is we want to be sufficiently diversified. If one business runs into financial difficulty and we have a loan default, we want to make sure that that isn’t such a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a philosophical change and I have talked to my colleagues on this side of the House as well, Minister McLeod about his days as an economic development officer in Providence. We know that the amount of money we have available for business development funds and the amount of grants to go out to communities has been decimated over the last 10 to 15 years. We see much less money available in terms of grants, so we had a shrinking pool. Most of the money was being accessed by the larger communities and it became very apparent that the larger communities had easier...

Mr. Speaker, there are several issues. There are issues around accommodations and I’ve talked to the RCMP about that. I’ve relayed the offer of the hamlet as well. We’ve got issues around the detachment, though, in terms of it not meeting code. That needs to be replaced. So there are a number of infrastructure issues there, but we appreciate the offer from the community. I believe that the RCMP will be in discussion with them because, of course, although the members won’t be permanently stationed there, we do need accommodation for them when they’re in town. They will be overnight for...

Mr. Speaker, thank you. I have several constituents paging here as well this week. I’d like to recognize them. I hope I get them all. I don’t have them broken out by riding, but I’m going to quickly do a scan. Christina Boggis is here, Shelby Brothers, Scott Stirling, Jake Olson, and I think that’s Casey Canning. I think that’s it. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to acknowledge their efforts here this week for us.

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Several questions there, Mr. Speaker. I hope that I can keep track and remember them all, but in terms of the patient capital, this is one of the new programs proposed by BDIC. They are out actively consulting. They are around communities in the North. I hope Members are being advised and apprised that they are in their communities looking to consult with stakeholders on this. I think that can be a successful and new program for the BDIC. So these discussions are underway.

We are also looking at creating some differential rates, loan rates, depending on the level of risk to the business. We...

I will have to get a formal update for the Member, from committee members, in terms of where the various different aspects of SINED funding sit today. There are very many schedules, targeted investment programs, application-based programming available. Individuals can apply through the Department of Indian and Northern Development to access funds. Government departments have been successful in accessing funds, whether it be for a road at Taltson, some runway work. There have been other pots of money that have been allocated across the territory. ITI has been involved in that. In terms of the...

Mr. Speaker, the current situation is that we send members in when we can from Inuvik. They do roving patrols. We were targeting once every six weeks or on an emergency basis to have members come into the community. This fall, as the two positions are hired, they will be officially located, the positions will be housed in Inuvik, but their sole job is Sachs Harbour and that’s where they’ll spend the bulk of their time. They’ll have to travel back and forth. When they are on their downtime back with their families, that won’t be something that they’re able to do in Sachs Harbour and this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question from the Member. The RCMP have indicated to me that they are in the hiring process and have started the search for members who would be qualified to go to Sachs Harbour and do the job there. We have been disappointed that there is some delay in getting the infrastructure on the ground in Sachs Harbour. As the Member knows well, we’ve got to be able to make the barge season. We weren’t able to do that this year because when we looked at the state of facilities, they required more work than we could get done in time. So there is a delay in...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho…

Mr. Speaker, I suspect the Member at times often knows the answer to the question that he is asking. There is work underway between social envelope departments currently -- I am sure he was not tipped at all, Mr. Speaker -- to look at how we can work interdepartmentally, Health, Education, Justice, all working collaboratively to talk about wilderness camps and to talk about standards, criteria and programming. I expect that this will take a much larger focus and have a higher profile in future governments as it should. We have far too many people in institutions. We need to get some of...