Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and follow along with my Member’s statement today. I talked about red tape and the existence of red tape. We know we can’t eliminate red tape and I’m not talking about the red tape as a result of legislative requirements, but there is lots of extra red tape that comes out of policies and procedures. It is not all GNWT, but I think we have an opportunity here to work with NABA and the NWT Chamber of Commerce to identify what the real burden is. I am asking the Minister today if he can work with NABA and the NWT Chamber of Commerce or possibly some other organization -- maybe not them -- to help us identify what the true burden is. Once we know the burden, we might be able to find some solutions to reduce some of that red tape. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly agree with the Member that small businesses in the Northwest Territories are the backbone of the Northwest Territories economy. Not only do they provide a value-added, they also provide employment and growth.
Two of the things that we have to guard against in the Northwest Territories are the high cost of doing business and leakages. One of the best ways to reduce the high cost of doing business is to reduce red tape. The Member quoted CFIB, and CFIB also said that 60 percent of the Members felt that we could reduce red tape by 10 to 15 percent without sacrificing any personal safety requirements. I would be quite pleased to work with all of the organizations that you mentioned. I do have a ministerial advisory panel in which NABA and the Chamber of Commerce are members of. Some of the things that we have done as a government, for example, under the SEED program, our application form we reviewed and reduced it to one page. We also have BizPaL, which will help us identify the permitting and licensing requirements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it is awfully nice when we are in agreement so easily. The Minister mentioned BizPaL. I think BizPaL is a great program, but I understand that the City of Yellowknife isn’t partnering with us on that. Right now, the City of Yellowknife has a lot of requirements for permits and whatnot. Has there been any work done with the City of Yellowknife to see if we can get them on side with us to help the businesses overall and reduce the amount of red tape? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as part of our Business Incentive Policy review, we identified that there are currently 1,350 businesses that are BIP under the Business Incentive Policy, and 75 percent of those businesses are in Yellowknife and the five larger regional centres. Currently, we have BizPaL in Hay River and Fort Smith. We are working with the City of Yellowknife and the City of Yellowknife is in the process of developing BizPaL as well. I think that they will bring us a long ways forward if we can concentrate on the other regional centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am really happy to hear that. I would like to go back to the Minister’s first response, where he was talking about reducing some of the red tape. I appreciate everything he was saying, but we are in that reality today. The red tape exists today and every day that it continues to exist, businesses continue to struggle. Frankly, I want small and medium-sized businesses to succeed in Yellowknife. I want them in small communities. I want them to offer employment in small communities. Every second counts. When can we expect to see some progress on this? When can the Minister commit to having his department maybe go out with an RFP or something to help have somebody help us identify the burden so we can eliminate the burden? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I think we are fortunate. We also have the Canadian Federation of Independent Business that does regular surveys of all the businesses in the Northwest Territories. We can undertake to work on this so that we can have something by the end of this 16th Legislative Assembly. Also, I think it is very important for us to also look at reducing leakages. We have a number of government programs that go a long ways to doing so, so we will be focusing on those as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is one thing I haven’t touched on but it is related. Right now, that federal legislation, we have federal permits. We have federal forms that people have to fill out. We have territorial, we have city, we have everything. In looking at some of the forms, I often see what appears to be some level of duplication. In the review, if I can get the Minister to commit that they will look at where all the requirements for business are coming from and hopefully by working with our partners, the federal government communities and other organizations, we can identify some of that overlap. Can I get the Minister to commit that they will try to identify that overlap and work with those partners to eliminate it as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. We do recognize that red tape exists at all levels of government. It exists at the federal, territorial and local level, and through our different partnerships we will work to reduce it at all three levels. We’ll have to rely on businesses to tell us what some of the more significant red tape is at the federal level, but certainly we can work within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and also with the municipal governments to find ways to reduce this red tape. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
