Thank you, Madam Speaker. In my statement earlier I talked about the many issues that the business community are facing right now. Can the Minister of ITI explain if her department has a plan to help address the rising costs of commercial insurance for businesses in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there's not a formal plan or policy or strategy around responding to insurance costs. Insurance costs are something that arises as a result of private market factors. And unfortunately, the Northwest Territories does face higher premiums generally. We have a smaller population over which the industry can spread its risk out. There's, you know, obviously remote location. There is the factor of the types of building materials that are used when we're dealing with capital insurance or capital products and assets, houses. And the fact is there's often limited emergency services. All of these are factors that can lead to higher costs in the North and not necessarily ones that we have an immediate ability to mitigate for residents or small businesses.
What I can say, Madam Speaker, though, is much as you've seen happen unfortunately with recent emergencies such as COVID, such as the floods, that if there are an acute event that occurs that the government does monitor such things and can step in to fill gaps if there are gaps and can step in and to ensure that there are not further emergencies. So while certainly I would be hopeful that we don't reach that point on an insurance front, we do keep an eye on what is occurring and, to the extent that we can, try to get information out to the small business community around what they might do to mitigate. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, will the Minister commit to have ITI work with the Department of Finance to find a concrete solution that can help lower the rates of overall commercial insurance rates for the NWT businesses? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, as I was just saying there's not a lot directly that the government can necessarily do. But what I would certainly be willing to look at is perhaps having the two departments come together and see if there's room through which the government can help advocate or room through which the government might be able to provide more information to small businesses, to the small business community, about what they might do to help influence their own rates. There may be information that is, you know, more readily available to some than to others, for example, with respect to, you know, the Insurance Bureau of Canada, what they do, what they might be useful how they might be useful, you know, other opportunities of where you might look to influence your insurance rates. And that may be a function or a role for government to act as an advocate but also as a pathfinder. So I will go back to both departments and see if that is something that we can get some more information out to. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I like the Minister's response. Madam Speaker, can the Minister tell us if her department agrees with the economists at the Royal Bank of Canada and anticipates a recession occurring in 2023? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm not good to providing a prediction here today. I certainly can say the Department of Finance is monitoring this. I know the Bank of Canada just put out their most recent monetary policy. And certainly I know I'm reading those documents, and our department's staff and fiscal policy are also reading those materials and keeping an eye on what is happening. But I think really where I want to go, Madam Speaker, in responding is to reassure that in that monitoring that we are doing so not just as an academic exercise. We're doing that so that we would be in a position to know what the impacts would be on the fiscal strategy of the government so that we would then know what that might, in turn, do, you know, whether it's to our procurement, whether it's to hiring, and to know what is happening in the economy at large so that, again, departments such as ITI can go out and make sure they are supporting industry. Our economy is very heavily reliant on the public sector, and the good news with the bad news is that gives us a bit more insulation to some of the shocks that you might otherwise see. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake. Oh, she got one more? Oh, I thought you said that was the last one. Okay, sorry, Member for Thebacha.
Madam Speaker, if a recession is, in fact, declared, can the Minister tell us if her department has a plan in place for how to help NWT businesses deal with that scenario? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I do appreciate the opportunity to speak to this question. I do hope that the members of the public and business are paying attention because, again, I know this can be a time with a lot of uncertainty. When there's uncertainty and volatility, it may mean businesses aren't making the investments that we want to see them making to have a robust and diversified economy in the North. So, again, I'll say something that I was saying a lot more back when the pandemic was in full force, which is that the public sector is larger in the territories than what it may be in some provincial areas. Now, there's downsides to that but one of the upsides to that it gives us a bit of stability. So we are certainly monitoring, again, not just as an academic way but to look at certain indicators, make sure that we are responsive and reactive where we need to be but, again, really it's at this point, Madam Speaker, I there's not a set plan because there's not a set emergency to which we need to respond. We are keeping an eye on what's happening and, again, trying to do things like pass a capital budget which would hopefully help support the small business sector through any times of uncertainty. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Members, we're going to take a short recess.
SHORT RECESS
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
