Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I was raising the issue of finding ways to attract businesses to the North, to create investment opportunities for all. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Today I’d like to ask him, as my first question, what programs and services does his department offer that target specifically to attracting businesses to relocate in the North, to be established in the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Member seems to want us to take on the provinces and he seems to think that the provinces are doing a great job. I agree that the provinces are doing a great job, but they have significantly more resources to work with.
The Province of Alberta, for example, has trade missions around the world. They have their own aircraft fleets that they can fly around to attract businesses. They have tax credit programs and tax initiatives. They have funding so that they can subsidize businesses to locate into their provinces.
The Member also mentioned Saskatchewan, where the Government of Saskatchewan is subsidizing student loans. I think what he’s suggesting is an approach that would wreck all of the programs that we’ve worked so hard to develop. I think he’s suggesting that we should get rid of the Business Incentive Program and I think that he’s suggesting that we should be funding Southerners to come and move up here.
Well, I’m really sorry that the Minister of ITI only heard that, because that’s not what I said. I suggested perhaps taxation is the right approach. I’m not necessarily sure. This government has foregone many taxes on the diamond mines as they were established and started producing. It’s not unusual for this government to find creative ways. What I’m really asking the Minister is if he can show me and explain to this House what programs we offer to attract business and investment in the Northwest Territories. If we don’t have a specific program targeted at that focus, would he consider establishing a program in a process that works for the Northwest Territories but doesn’t necessarily try to compete or look like Alberta in the sense of size?
Our focus has been mainly to invest in and help develop northern businesses and northern entrepreneurs. We also have funding to promote the Northwest Territories as a great place to invest in. We have limited resources, so as much as we can, we use the media to multiply the effects of the money that we spend in that regard. We do work with businesses that are interested in moving up here and I think that our predominant approach is to develop our northern workforce and our northern businesses.
The Minister knows I respect him very much, but I think he’s missing the point that I’m after. I don’t mean this in a mean way, but the reality of our funding agreements and our budget are tied around federal grants. Those federal grants are tied specifically to population and growth. So 75 percent of our budget plus or minus is based on federal grants. At $22,000 per person, that’s a lot of money. A hundred people in the Northwest Territories could mean over $2 million of just federal money, not talking about tax, not talking about what they bring. I’m only asking the Minister if he would consider the approach of starting a program that could look at attracting new businesses to the Northwest Territories and that will bring new people as well.
If the Member is wanting to know what we were doing to attract people to move to the Northwest Territories, he should have asked that. The Minister of Finance did announce in the previous budget that we are undertaking a program to attract more people to come and work and live in the Northwest Territories. So we are working and signed an MOU with diamond mines, we have set targets to increase the number of workers that live in the South and getting them to move north. We have also signed on to immigrant nominee programs so we can get people who are moving to Canada to come and work in the Northwest Territories, recognizing what the Member has said, that for every person that moves to the Northwest Territories, that results in significant increases to our territorial formula financing.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister straying from the real point of the whole discussion here, which is the fact that we need a program to help attract business to invest in the Northwest Territories. That is where our population is sort of sprung off or where the opportunity lies. Would the Minister consider establishing some sort of task force program that reaches out into industry to bring industry here in the Northwest Territories as I talked about in my Member’s statement? Whether it’s call centres or attracting new business and whatnot, there are so many opportunities I don’t have the time here today to say them all. It’s about a program that reaches out and attracts business to the Northwest Territories. I think that really needs to be looked at. Would he commit to looking into that process?
The Member will be pleased to know that I do have a ministerial advisory panel made up of the leading figures of business and the leading associations in the Northwest Territories. I will pose that question to them.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
