Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a potential taskforce concept or certainly a business team that targets business growth in the Northwest Territories that reaches out and finds good business that could invest in the North and create jobs. In combing through ITI’s business plan, I didn’t see anything that focused in on attracting new business to the North. I provided a number of examples. Can the Minister tell me who’s been tasked with that type of initiative that can attract business in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I missed who you’re addressing your question to, Mr. Hawkins.
The Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is aware of this old saying about great minds think alike. Just last week I had a meeting of my ministerial advisory panel and I posed exactly that question to them, as to whether the businesspeople in the Northwest Territories thought it was a good idea for the Government of the Northwest Territories to get involved with attracting businesses from the South to relocate to the North and whether the Government of the Northwest Territories should develop new programs or invest any money in doing so. We’re still waiting for a response from the ministerial advisory panel.
I’m really glad that the Minister didn’t comb over the issue as I’ve been combing through the department.
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And recognizes how important it is.
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Not that it’s a problem for either of us.
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As the Minister says, he’s proposed the concept to the ministerial advisory panel. Actually, we did talk about this some time ago and he did suggest that he’d make sure he brought something similar to the concept to them and it sounds positive. Does the Minister see their good value for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment with coming up with a taskforce that could target these types of initiatives as well as reach out to local businesses to see how we can dovetail our policies to do this attraction of new business to the North?
The initial reaction to the question that we posed to the ministerial advisory panel was that we had to be very strategic in attracting new businesses to the North. That whatever we did should be to meet some specific needs and also would build on northern capacity. Also I know that with the preference policies that we developed for northern businesses, is our northern businesses don’t mind competing as long as it’s on a level playing field, so they would want to see whatever businesses come up here invest in the North and set up their businesses accordingly.
I’m glad the Minister talked about trying to find specific targets that would point at present needs of business. Certainly, I guess he was alluding, in one form or another, to what would work in our economy that makes sense. I would say, would the Minister be interested in supporting some type of panel discussion or conference that would work with business to help develop a business growth strategy here in the North that could attract new business and investment and, furthermore, get Northerners to work? This is not just a Yellowknife-centric issue. I think we can find ways to spread and seed businesses throughout the North that could help everyone.
We’d be quite prepared to work with our partners. We work very closely with the chambers of commerce, with the Northern Aboriginal Business Association and other groups to see if we can set up such a conference or workshop.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s answer was very exciting. Does the Minister see any policy problems that we have that would stop something like this from getting momentum or getting off the ground immediately? I’m only concerned that policy or process of department may have issue with this. I just want to make sure that if the Minister says we can do this and he likes it, I want to make sure we can do it right away.
I think that we’d have to be very careful, because, as I said, we do have northern preference policies for northern businesses. As well, we’ve expended a lot of effort to develop an interim northern manufacturing directive and we would really want to support those northern businesses or northern manufacturers that manufacture in the Northwest Territories, because it’s a high-cost area to operate out of and there are also issues and challenges with regard to attracting skilled labour and availability of housing. When we support our businesses, what we do is focus on the labour issues, reducing red tape and also providing a level playing field.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, before we go on with oral questions, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery and to the presence of a former Member of this House from the 12th Assembly representing the constituency of Kitikmeot, Mr. Ernie Bernhardt and his daughter Donna, who happens to be the CA to Member Jackie Jacobson. Welcome to the Chamber. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
