David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was talking about the loan from the Opportunities Fund to Discovery Air. I just wanted to stand up in the House today and make a short statement. It wasn’t my intent yesterday to speak of Discovery Air or their shareholders in a negative light. I appreciate and welcome the contribution that Discovery Air provides to the economy in the Northwest Territories and everything they do for our residents.

My big issues yesterday, Mr. Speaker, were with the lack of a process that saw that loan approved, the lack of any meaningful discussion with Regular Members prior to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process right now...I mean, really there isn’t a process, but what there is is not fair and it’s not transparent. What I’m saying is we need to come up with something that’s fair to everybody in the Northwest Territories. Like I said, it’s nothing against Discovery Air. I know they’re a good company. I know they’re going to do everything they can to pay this off at the end of four years. The fact remains, though, that we have to do more for other businesses and in this process that’s there, it just isn’t fair. That’s what people are saying and that’s what people...

Mr. Speaker, again it gets tiresome asking questions, asking questions. We want to be fully engaged with the Minister and with the government so that we can move some things forward here. This Opportunities Fund, the more I look at it, an opportunity here for us as a government to stimulate our economy would be to borrow some of this money ourselves and invest it in businesses here in the Northwest Territories, and get to work on stimulating our economy. Instead, decisions are being made without our input that we have to question. You know, we have to stand up here and question. It’s that...

I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, the due diligence, as I have been told, was done by the company itself. I am not sure to what level FMB did its own due diligence on this, but the people I have talked to -- and myself, I am not an accountant, but looking at the financial statements, unaudited financial statements of that company dated October 31st of last year, they are $141 million in debt and I don’t know how their cashflow projections are going to enable them to pay any money back at the end of four years. They are in an awful lot of trouble, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to find...

Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Finance, who is also the chair of the Financial Management Board. It goes back to the $34 million loan to Discovery Air. What I want to speak about today, Mr. Speaker, is the process that allowed this to happen. The way I look at it, if something like this happened in a province and the government made a decision to lend $34 million, that loan would come under some heavy scrutiny; there would be some accountability and there would be some oversight. In the case of the Government of the Northwest Territories, two Ministers show up...

The bottom line remains. Once again Regular Members found out about this loan after the fact. There was no opportunity for us to suggest creative ways in which we could look at using this fund to provide some tangible opportunities for businesses and people in our own Territory. I think what happened here is shameful.

I’d like to present a petition dealing with the matter of seniors’ health benefits. This petition contains 427 signatures of Northwest Territories’ residents from Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. The petitioners request that the GNWT continue to support the seniors’ Supplementary Health Benefits Program and that the program be kept as it is. The petitioners do not want to see seniors lose their benefits, and request that the GNWT recognize the value of senior citizens and leaving the Health Benefits Program unchanged.

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I’d like to ask the Minister if it would be possible for the Government of the Northwest Territories to access a portion of that Opportunities Fund to set up a program that would stimulate local business here in the Northwest Territories. Is that a possibility and if it is, can we get to work on that immediately?

Other jurisdictions in this country are working diligently on propping up their economies and doing things in hard times that make some sense, and we should be doing the same here. Right now, I don’t think we’re doing enough and that might be an opportunity to get something done. Thank...

I have some questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Minister McLeod, and it gets back again to the Opportunities Fund. I want to stand up here today and say that I’m not trying to beat up Discovery Air. They provide valuable service to our residents here. They contribute a great deal to our economy. It’s not Discovery Air that I have an issue with, Mr. Speaker, it’s the process that allowed the government to lend money without any oversight or accountability. Like I said earlier, I’d be phoning the Auditor General of Canada to look after that aspect of it.

The question I...

The Opportunities Fund itself is a substantial amount of money, in the neighbourhood initially of $128 million. A decision like that by Cabinet to go from a passive investment vehicle to something which is very high risk, I think that’s a decision and a question that should have been asked of all Members of this House. There is a number of Members on this side of the House that have some good ideas about how to stimulate our own northern economy and perhaps even borrowing some of the money ourselves and looking at our own stimulus package. You know, we never had the chance, and like I said...