Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the high cost of living in the Sahtu on various fronts here. I want to ask the Minister of ITI, when businesses in the Sahtu try to recover some of the costs because of the high cost of heating and power and these costs are also recovered through customers. I want to ask the Minister what his department is doing in terms of helping the businesses to reduce the cost of goods and services to make it affordable in small communities.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year we announced the number of actions that ITI was taking to help small business, specifically with BDIC, those of our clients that are best clients that we are making reduced loans available to them. We also are helping with working capital for those companies that would be ordering for goods that they would be selling. We’ve made arrangements for some effective rates for them to take advantage of. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for some of the highlights of what his department is doing. I am also asking about some of the other businesses such as the Northern Store, the Co-op or some of the other industries that have goods and services, because of the high cost of running their stores on these diesel power plants in my region, where the costs are fairly high in terms of being in the region. Mr. Speaker, I will ask the Minister if there is anything his department is doing to reduce the costs in these communities.
I am pleased to announce that my colleague the Minister of Environment and myself have had the opportunity to meet with some of the businesses that operate on a territorial-wide basis, particularly of how we could use commercial subsidies that have been identified to help reduce the cost of goods for businesses that are operating not only in the Sahtu, but throughout the North. So this is an area that we are still working on, and certainly most of the businesses were very eager to work with us and to find ways to not only to reduce costs of the products they sold, but to make their businesses much more energy efficient. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I want to zero in on the comment that the Minister made in terms of the commercial subsidies for these small businesses. Can the Minister inform the House as to what type of…When would this type of discussion come to the floor in terms of looking at our commercial subsidies? I know the program is in place and I know there is some controversy as to the effectiveness of this commercial subsidy program. Can the Minister tell me and the House here what type of discussion can come to the floor in terms of the commercial subsidies program?
As the Member knows, we have an electricity review underway and as part of the terms of reference, this is one of the areas the review team will be looking at and this is what we will be reviewing when we get the recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to reviewing the recommendations with the rest of the Members of this House here and Cabinet colleagues. Can the Minister tell us as to when these recommendations can come to the knowledge of the public in terms of this review of this specific issue on reducing the cost of living in our small communities?
As we indicated earlier at the start of this process, we are working very closely with all Members of this House. We will come forward when we have had full opportunity to receive the recommendations and review them fully. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
