Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I again thank the Minister for his answer. As he's aware, that community is a tricouncil, and so I would hope that information will be shared with them. Can that information also be shared with the Department of Health and Social Services and myself?
This information already has been shared with Health and Social Services, and I believe it was also shared with the Member of the 17th Assembly, and I will make sure that any information that was shared previously gets to the Member of this Assembly.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since 2013, the NWT has lost nearly a thousand smallmedium sized enterprises. What is the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment doing to bring small business and entrepreneurs back to the Northwest Territories and invest in our private sector? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have just been newly appointed to this portfolio and been a small business owner myself previous to coming to the Assembly, I will work diligently to ensure that all small business opportunities there are available in all the communities in the Northwest Territories and to all entrepreneurs that are thinking of going into small business in the Northwest Territories have the opportunity to move forward in a manner that will best benefit residents of the Northwest Territories and the communities, and we will ensure to help them the best we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that. I'm sure his experience as an entrepreneur himself will lend some new insight into our policies. One area that needs to be improved is the availability of investment capital for business opportunities. Right now, it's very hard for entrepreneurs to access investment, and, in a time when the global economy is not opening up to investment, what is our government doing to flow more capital to entrepreneurs and small businesses and allow them to make investments in our economy, create jobs, and diversify a stalled economy that is overly dependent on resource development?
As the Member alluded to, yes, the capital markets are tight and the commodities are low, so that puts a lot of pressure on the economy of the Northwest Territories with little development in the mining sector. As the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, we have a number of programs that are here that are available to young entrepreneurs, old entrepreneurs, to move the economy forward, and we continue to invest in them. We have the SEED program and a number of other opportunities where they can access capital via the Metis Development Fund, or the Community Futures, or ITI or even BDIC, and we will continue to work with those organizations to make sure capital is available to any entrepreneur that wants to move forward.
Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to enhancing those programs or indicate whether or not those programs will be enhanced in the near future or will they stay the same? I appreciate that the department does a lot of work in this area, but, at a time, as the Minister indicated, where capital markets are tight, we need this investment. Is the department going to put more money into these opportunities, or are we keeping things status quo? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As this is early days in my portfolio, I will be reviewing all available capital that's available to all people of the Northwest Territories, and I'm sure, if there's a need to either lower it or raise it, I will make sure I inform this House.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier and the Finance Minister have talked about the importance of infrastructure in supporting the economy. In fact, it's the real tool to drive our economy forward. As the Minister has recently come to this portfolio, is the Minister willing to look at our procurement policies and bring in members of the private sector and procurement experts to find a way to make procurement more effective at boosting our economy and flowing capital into our communities and creating more jobs?
Is the Minister willing to take a look at BIP and our other procurement policies and make them more effective, more transparent, for Northerners? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As a government, we are always looking at trying to find a way to make things more better, more effective, more resilient. I believe that we are. On an annual basis, we probably look at BIP and procurement on a regular basis. Back to his question about making more money available to small businesses and communities, with raising the procurement level to $25,000, that is, I believe, has offered the smaller communities a little better chance to participate in the economy and be able to bid and supply stuff to the Government of the Northwest Territories, so that is one thing I believe that is positive out of that.
Masi. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is the latest version of the "Contracts Over $5,000," I believe is the document the Member is referring to, will be tabled during this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I welcome the Finance Minister following through with that and putting accountability into action within the next few days. I made reference in my statement to the last evaluation of contracting practices released in 2009 by the Auditor General of Canada, who, of course, is our Auditor General, as well. It found flaws in the awarding of one in five solesource contracts. With new contracting limits and dramatic upstream in the solesource contract value, the potential for error and loss is there. Will the Minister commit to carrying out an evaluation of solesource contract awarding practice and performance for this fiscal year? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I have to make a correction. I said "during this Assembly." I actually meant during this sitting of the 18th Legislative Assembly, so we will ensure we have that tabled. The Member's second question there, I will commit to having a review of this. The Member is correct, solecourse contract limits raising, I think it would be an ideal time for us to have a look at how we provide oversight to these contracts, so I will commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I'm tempted to ask for even bigger and better things since I've got the Minister mostly saying yes.
Laughter
Could you reverse the 100… no? okay.
Laughter
I wonder if the Minister could give me even some preliminary thoughts about what this review might look like, who would do it, when it would be done and so on and so forth? Thank you.
No.
Laughter
No, I can't provide any preliminary estimates or thoughts on that, but I have committed to the Member that I will have a review of this and then we'll share the findings with the Members.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Finance Minister for that. One of the points in my statement was that some people seem to benefit disproportionately from solesource contracting. I mentioned deputy ministers and consultants who had multiple contracts among them for quite a steep value. I wonder if the Minister would consider, as part of his review, looking at whether there need to be some limits on the number of contracts awarded to a single individual or, alternatively, a total value of contracts awarded to a single individual? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Well, Mr. Speaker, the contracts, I'm sure, are awarded to people that provide a skill set and some value to the workings of the government. I'm not sure that it's fair to any individual if we put on a limit as to how many contracts they can get or what the amount is, but I have committed to the Member that I will review that. Again, I just need to stress that we -- obviously these folks that do get sole-source contracts, provide a service and a skill set that would provide some value for the GNWT.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about a traditional economy and my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. In small and remote communities there's a heavy reliance in terms of traditional foods where people have to supplement their diets and their income by taking on traditional economy and so it becomes a very critical and integral part of the community's economy. How is this government investing in the promotion and protection of traditional lifestyles? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this individual and this government believes very strongly in the traditional value of the people of the Northwest Territories, especially those in the communities that still practice their traditional hunting. Through ENR and through some of the other departments there are a number of programs and I think there's even some resources put to those programs to assist those communities. Take a Kid Trapping is a perfect example, I think that's run out of multiple departments, there's some money there. There is the Grub Stake Program; I think that's provided through ITI.
So as far as dollar value -- and actually that's a good question because I would like to put together a dollar value of all the assistance that we provide to the communities. I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised at the amount of resources we put into the communities to practice their traditional lifestyle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. In the past, the Protected Area Strategy outlined a seven-step process in terms of bringing governments and communities to work on conservation area networks. Can the Minister explain how the conservation area network will improve upon the PAS initiative?
Mr. Speaker, I am getting weekly updates from the department. I mean, I've been in the portfolio for 36 days, four hours and 22 minutes. Not realizing what a huge department ENR is and how much it covers. So some of the information, as I get more educated on it, I'll be in a better position to respond to the Member's question.
The other question that I had is how does this department coordinate its work with other departments to ensure that habitat is protected? We have a series of conservation area network initiatives that are pending or being developed or advanced. Would the Minister explain in terms of its coordination with other departments in terms of ensuring that habitat is protected?
Mr. Speaker, we can work closely with the other departments. We recognize that there's some areas around the NWT that are being conserved or that people wish to have conserved, so we're working closely with the other departments. One of the first things as Minister of ENR I've asked our officials to work a lot closer with the other departments so that we're all on the same page because this is a very important issue to residents in the Northwest Territories, so we'll continue to do that work, and then through the committee of Cabinet on the economy and environment we also have those discussions. So again, as I become more familiar with the file I will be in a better position to share a lot of that information with Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. In the outset, the Minister had indicated that he would be interested in developing at least a summary in terms of the investment of this government in terms of assistance to small communities and their traditional economy. Would the Minister commit to ensuring that report is tabled within the House at a given time and made available to this side of the House? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we'll start the work and gather a lot of that information and I think it would be valuable information. I mean, we will share it with the Members obviously, and then once we get all the work done we will table it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I have questions for the Minister of Finance. I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance if he has met with other Ministers to see if they have a plan to spend strategically to ensure that we get the best bang for our buck as far as government goes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have conversations with my colleagues in the other departments and it is a very important initiative that we do try and spend strategically all across the Northwest Territories, the larger centres, and then we recognize that in the smaller communities any investment we make I think is a real plus to that community and it does create some employment. So the quick answer to the Member's question is yes, I have had conversations with my colleagues and we do plan on any infrastructure investment to spend it strategically so it benefits all residents in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to the infrastructure spending by the government, has this Minister again continued discussions with the other Ministers to ensure that the spending is targeted to the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories that we all support?
Mr. Speaker, everything we do in this Assembly, and I'm talking all 19 of us, is I think targeted towards the Mandate of the 18th Assembly, and many of the things in the mandate is to create employment, and it's a very large mandate so we don't miss too many parts of the mandate when we do our spending across the Northwest Territories. So the answer is yes, we do target the spending towards the Mandate of the 18th Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, people know I'm a big proponent of employment over things like applying for somebody to come and fix my house; I would rather give individuals a job so they could fix their own house. So does the Minister agree that creating employment with government spending, not necessarily employing the people, but creating employment with government spending is the best way to address social ills of the Northwest Territories?
Good question.
Mr. Speaker, I share the Member's concern with employment in the small communities, and I do agree that creating employment in small communities is one of the better ways to help with the social ills. It's not the only answer, there's other parts to it. We've seen prime examples of that, especially with the Inuvik to Tuk Highway, I can use that as an example, because I know from my past portfolios that our income support numbers went down, revenue went up with the housing collection. There was opportunities for training. I spoke of the numbers before, and there was great opportunity there for training. So this is a part of helping overcome the social ills of the Northwest Territories. I totally agree with the Member though, that people do want to work, and I think it's incumbent on us as a government to give them an opportunity for employment, and it's one of the reasons that we've gone through this exercise for the last -- since the beginning of this Assembly to free up some money so that we're able to reinvest that money back into the Northwest Territories, match any money that the federal government might make available to us. So there is a lot of moving parts to this, but at the end of the day our goal is for healthy people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
