Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to use my Member’s statement today to tell this government that we are not doing enough to support small business in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, we have expended a lot of time and energy going around and consulting, consulting, consulting. We have amalgamated things. We have come up with a new BDIC, but I tell you today still, if you want to start a business or expand a business, you have got a very rough road ahead of you in terms of accessing capital to do that.

I had the opportunity and thank the Minister of ITI for inviting me to attend a roundtable on the economy with our Prime Minister last week. The Prime Minister shared that sovereignty is a very big priority of the Conservative government. I took the opportunity to tell the Prime Minister that one step towards addressing the issue of sovereignty is to ensure that we have people living in the North. If we want people living in the North, we need something for them to do to support themselves. We need jobs and we need strong communities. That will create the presence that we need in the North to say that this is Canada and we have sovereignty.

So, Mr. Speaker, to the issue of accessing capital, we have business programs in place, but I think they have gone backwards. It has been many years since we have had an economic development agreement. If the federal government wants to do something useful with Canadian taxpayers’ dollars, they should revisit the issue of a very good economic development agreement in partnership with our government so that people who had the creativity, and the initiative, and the desire to start small businesses can do so.

Resource development is out there. It is big. We need the businesses to come in and to service that industry, but we need to create that opportunity on a level playing field. There has been a turning away from some of the emphasis on some of the level ones in larger communities, but yesterday the issue of housing came up in this Assembly of modular housing. Most of you who have been to Hay River to visit, you know that we have a proven track record there with a company that is building modular units. There is no reason why you would go three miles south into Alberta and people are building modular homes. If we can do that in Alberta, why can we not do that on a viable basis in the Northwest Territories? Part of the reason is it is a capital-intensive business to start up. We have a $2 million cap on our lending. It should not be there. For businesses that want to expand, with a proven track record, we should be revisiting the issue of those loan caps. I will have questions for the Minister of ITI on this today. Thank you.

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