Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, along with a couple of my colleagues, I would like to speak about the business incentive policy in relation to importing mobile home units. Everyone knows that the cost of doing business in the North is higher. In order to create a more level playing field while at the same time developing our northern economy, our government decided that it was worth the price of a potential monetary premium to see jobs and money stay in the North.

The difficulty is that the financial resources are tight. There is a temptation to jump to the conclusion that, without the BIP, our purchase of goods and services and homes will go further. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think that northern suppliers and manufacturers were given the advantage of turning their mind to the supply of these 22 units that have been discussed extensively in this House over the past few days. Yet, had the same effort been applied to dialogue with northerners to find a northern solution to this need, I think the results might have been quite substantial. It is quite a leap to go from stick built homes built on site in communities, which was something this government has insisted on for many years, to imported modular or mobile housing units.

We don’t know, Mr. Speaker, if we are actually saving anything. Because the benefits of buying north are not easy to quantify, we fall into the mindset that everything from the South is cheaper and better. I don’t agree with that. In our harsh conditions here in the North, where temperatures can range easily from 30 below to 30 above, a better investment of our scarce resources might have been more prudently spent on a northern product. Not to mention the benefits of keeping jobs and incomes in the North.

Mr. Speaker, I realize that it may not be possible to pull back the tender of these 22 units and still meet the pressing needs for these units in the communities that are now expecting them in a timely manner. But, I think the message to the government should be that in the future, before we spend an inordinate amount of time on how we could defend diverging from our current procurement policies, we invest an equal or greater amount of time in consulting northerners about how we could efficiently and cost-effectively deal with the need of affordable housing while adhering to this government’s philosophy of building capacity, creating jobs and economy here in the North.

As one of my colleagues alluded to, we spend a lot of energy convincing large corporate clients to be good citizens. Mr. Speaker, we need to lead by example, be good corporate citizens, and practice what we preach. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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