Debates of October 18, 2006 (day 10)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to raise the issue of government policies in areas related to tendering, procurement and business incentives for our 27 small communities. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to see this government develop or make amendments to these outdated policies. All of these policies pretty much include all government departments in some form or fashion. The amendments I and many other northerners living in our small communities would like to see come into effect are ones that only apply to non-market communities; amendments which allow for the fair distribution of government dollars or public dollars being spent in these remote communities by our various government departments, amendments that will provide for a fair distribution of government contracts and business opportunities in our small centres where small businesses rely heavily on government spending to survive. Changes such as these would be much appreciated by people struggling in the service industry in our smaller communities, but will only work if our public service makes it work by continuously monitoring and assessing where these government and public dollars are being spent, and who is benefiting, and ultimately ensuring that fairness and balance are a priority.

Mr. Speaker, we have over 30 public service employees who work on policy development and implementation for our government and I cannot understand why we do not recognize that many of these policies related to tendering, procurement and business incentive either do not work for the small communities or are not implemented in a fair and equitable manner. Mr. Speaker, this has to change and the first step is to take charge of our public service in our remote and small communities, and ultimately in our regions. Our public service are also these people who have the authority to expend these public dollars and I hope that…It’s good to see that we have our five regional directors here in the gallery today and I hope that they take this message back to their regions and to begin to work on some recommendations for changes on these old government policies and we start to move toward more equitable and a fair distribution of public money in our small communities, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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