Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak today about the disposition of the Opportunities Fund, a fund Members will recall was used to give out a $34 million loan just over a year ago to Discovery Air. In talking about the decision to lend that money I don’t want to relive that whole debate today, but Discovery Air did make some commitments to this government that I believe need to be followed up on.
First, they were to relocate their head office from London, Ontario, to Yellowknife, which I understand is in the works. How come it took over a year for that to happen? Does the move include the CEO, the president, the CFO, and COO?
Discovery Air was also to move and operate a training school in Yellowknife and I was wondering if the government knows whether or not this will in fact happen.
What opening up the Opportunities Fund to allow a loan like the one made to Discovery Air did was raise expectations from other companies across the Northwest Territories that we would look at lending out of the balance of that fund. As chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure, I’ve fielded many inquiries about the fund from across the Northwest Territories. Our committee has waited almost over a year for the government to put some workable options in front of committee so we could utilize these funds for others. Mr. Speaker, we got nothing meaningful to work with in the past year. Not too long ago, Mr. Speaker, I received a letter stating that now Finance Canada has instructed the Government of the Northwest Territories to look at the Opportunities Fund money as debt on our balance sheet. And we all know how close to the edge this government is, given the current disposition of the Deh Cho Bridge Project.
Mr. Speaker, what I’d like to know today is whether or not the decision to lend the $34 million from the Opportunities Fund in any way precipitated the federal government changing their opinion on how we state that money in our accounting. Mr. Speaker, I will have other questions pertaining to the Opportunities Fund at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
