Kieron Testart

Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking at page 221, I would like to ask some questions about the Mining Incentive Program. This program was increased in last year's budget to a million dollars, more than double. I am just wondering if the Minister can speak to whether all of this money got out the door last fiscal or this fiscal year. Did all the money invested into this fund get used? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talked about the early results of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot project. Some of the comments from people in the program: "It's given me back my independence," "I don't feel backed into a corner," "If I want to eat, I can afford to buy something instead of going to a food bank or soup kitchen." These are the kind of progressive policies that are moving the working poor forward in the province of Ontario. Will the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment speak to any analysis that his department has done on a guaranteed basic income...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was involved in that process, and I appreciate the work that is going into that. One of the areas that is up for discussion in the strategic discussions around manufacturing is converting the current list policy, where you have to be registered as a manufacturer to receive the preferential purchasing, shifting that to a labour market subsidy so that you actually subsidize manufacturing operations to encourage employment. I think that is a viable option that is perhaps preferable to the current system.

If that example were undertaken, it would require an additional source...

Regulations and legislation are of course different. I am just wondering: are we talking about legislative change or regulatory change? The Minister can change the regulations today if he wanted to. Can the Minister clarify? Thank you.

By how much? Thank you.

Thank you. The legislative change that is required, when does the Minister anticipate bringing that forward?

Thank you to the Minister for providing the technical details of how it's calculated, but I'm looking for the reasons why there is a drop from $31 million to $13 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have spoken about this before, but BDIC performs an important role in supporting businesses in the Northwest Territories, providing advice to those companies and those individuals who are interested in getting involved and, of course, through its lending programs.

Looking at the information item, which is included later in the business review, on page 227, we see some of their operating results, and they seem to generate a significant amount of surplus. My understanding is that they cannot access that surplus under the terms of the current legislation. Is the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Onto the tourism operator licences, it just seems odd that this number isn't growing with the success of the tourism industry and the number of operators. I often hear that there's a lot of competition out there for new operators who are coming in to take advantage of the tourism market. Are we not predicting any new operations applying for licences? Thank you.