Debates of February 24, 2005 (day 43)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of RWED in his capacity as the Minister responsible for the BIP. I would like to know if the Minister and the Cabinet have decided whether or not to waive the BIP with respect to 22 additional mobile homes under the market housing initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Bell.

Return To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The same rules will apply for phase two as they did for phase one. At that point when the decision was made to waive the BIP on the procurement of the mobile homes, it was for the life of the program. So there’s no difference between this phase and the prior purchase under phase one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister responsible for economic development, for fair business practice, for fairness of all in Cabinet, how can he justify the government continuing to waive their own policy in spending $2.5 million? How can he justify that, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Bell.

Further Return To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What’s happening here is we haven’t rescinded the previous decision. I think this debate was had in the House. I remember specific questions from the Member at that point about it, and obviously our feeling was, as it related to install in communities, we would leave the BIP in place because there was a chance to have value added, there was a chance there would be northern employment out of this. But our feeling was that if the BIP was simply going to be applied so that northern home distributors could make a phone call to Edmonton and get trailers sent up, that there wasn’t a lot of value added there and that that was not the best use of public money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if he and this government operates under that policy, how does the government have credibility and justification to force all of the northern multi-national corporations in their obligations to hire northern, buy northern and do things northern? How can the Minister and the government have any credibility in insisting that when they don’t even practice their own principle? Thank you.

Hear! Hear!

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Bell.

Further Return To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think, by and large, obviously, we do practice that principle. On a specific where we think there really will be no value added, no benefit in the North, then the question becomes one of finding a balance. Do you insist that the BIP be in place and allow, as I’ve said, a northern middleman to apply an additional mark-up on the units being purchased, Mr. Speaker? That was the debate that we had. How much value was there in that? So what we decided was more important was affordable housing in communities. We’ve seen that the premise of this program is that they’ll be on the cost-recovery basis, and even at that, $1,300 a month in communities for these three-bedroom mobile homes has been a challenge to get them filled. That’s why, I believe, the Housing Minister is moving to the smaller units. But if we allowed for the BIP and it added an additional cost, we may have been talking about -- hypothetically, I don’t know what the numbers would be -- maybe $1,350 per month, for homes.

We did feel there was value added in the install and the building of the pads for the trailers in communities, and that is why the BIP was applied to that portion of the contract. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 477-15(3): Business Incentive Policy Application

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest to the Minister, that if you call Mr. Les Rocher in Yellowknife, he would say that there is a lot of value added in doing business in the North and that it is not fair for the government to apply BIP just in 15 percent of the projects and not to larger centres. I think he would tell him that he doesn’t appreciate the government competing with him in the whole selling of the mobile home business. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.