Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I liked the Minister's earlier statement there: build it, and they will come. Mr. Speaker, this is Small Business Week, and I appreciate the Minister's words about small business in his statement today. I would, however, like to ask the Minister some questions about the government's support for small business in the Sahtu region. Can the Minister give me examples of how ITI is supporting businesses in the Sahtu? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I highlighted in my statement today, we have spent $17.6 million with the government this last year to help support individuals and businesses and governments and groups across the economic sector.
In his particular riding, we have spent $1.6 million, but at the same time, we realized that there was a downturn with Line 21 being shut down and a lot of pressure on the small businesses in that Member's riding. We have worked very closely to realign those businesses and what they need to do. They have to target different products, services, and customers. As such, the department has worked very closely with them.
This coming week, I think it is this coming week, the Department of ITI is going out to communities outside the Member's riding of Norman Wells to all of his smaller communities, and we are going to have an information session about how to start a small business in his region. Staff is there to assist them. In particular, our department also takes great pride in small communities in how we support and strengthen the traditional economy. We want to meet with all eligible trappers and what type of assistance is available for them, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That leads me to my next question. The Minister mentioned the SEED program, or the SEED policy. The government's mandate for the 18th Assembly commits to updating SEED programs to better align themselves with the needs of entrepreneurial and small business owners. Can the Minister provide an update on this work?
As I said earlier in my statements, we had a look at the SEED program and we realized that there were some pressures on it, and rising costs around some of these things. We got feedback from a number of NWT businesses, so we looked at changing this up. Our budget still is $3.86 million. That is what we talked about earlier already today, and that hasn't changed at all.
What has changed is individual applicants have increased for most of our programs, so one of the changes that we made is the individual contribution under the entrepreneurs stream. The entrepreneurs support stream has increased from $15,000 to $25,000. Individual contributions available under the business intelligent networking stream have increased from $3,000 to $4,000, and entrepreneurs capped out on their contribution under the micro-business stream are now eligible to reapply in three years instead of five years.
We are also piloting a strategic investment stream in 2017 that we have renewed for this year which allows one-time contributions up to $75,000 for individuals to meet criteria based on the mandate of increasing economic growth and diversity.
My next question is: the government's mandate also commits to implementing the economic opportunities strategy. That's not something we have heard about lately. Can the Minister update the House on this work?
In fact, we were planning and providing the Members an update on this later in the session, but I'm happy to share some information right now with Members. The reason the Member hasn't heard about the economic opportunities strategy is because most of the recommendations that were made in that document become part of our mandate, and we've talked about the work as this mandate commitments. In fact, the strategy's 117 recommendations now have been addressed, and more than 70 per cent have resulted in ongoing improvements and initiatives by our government. We have begun to work investment and revitalize the Great Slave fishing industry. We are implementing the Northwest Territories immigration strategy 2017-2022. We are advancing a Northwest Territories agriculture strategy with new funding and partnership. We're developing a manufacturing strategy. Thanks to the rebate program, our film sector is thriving and generating benefits from many of our sectors of our economy.
Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is around the role of BDIC. It is also to be a developmental leader and to flow funding to the Northwest Territories' businesses, and that is needed most. Like the small communities in my riding, what is the GNWT doing to ensure that the BDIC provides the best value to the NWT? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
BDIC is a valuable contributor to the NWT economy. One of the things that has come up in this Assembly is the BDIC Act. It has a program review written into it every five years, and that's what we're doing right now. We're having a serious look at that. ITI is leading that work along with BDIC and its stakeholders. That work will continue, and I think most Members have a bit of an understanding of it because they have been briefed on it. The terms of reference have been finalized already, and we've shared them with standing committee. It has three main focuses, and they are: they will consider how well BDIC has achieved its objectives over the last five years; they will include an environmental scan to identify future challenges and market conditions; and consider what services and programs BDIC should have in place for the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
