Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I was listening to the question period here today, I heard the Minister of ITI respond to the Member from Sahtu about the dollar amount that has been spent in Sahtu. I would like to ask the Minister if he has that dollar amount for the riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh also. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information right here at my desk, but I can get that exact number for the Member and provide it to him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my Member's statement, I referred to some of the businesses that are potential businesses in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. I would like to ask if the Minister would direct the Business Development and Investment Corporation to send business development officers into the communities to meet with the community groups in order to flesh out what other possibilities may exist in the community for small business.
I can certainly have a look at the staff that we sent into the Sahtu region and work with the Member, and what we can do in his region to send our staff in there to talk about what are possibilities of starting up small businesses and opportunities, as well as, as I mentioned earlier in my statements today, to work around the traditional economy and how the hunters and trappers can access some of the SEED money, as well.
I know that the Minister meant Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, but I would like to ask the Minister a question on the number. Earlier the Minister had indicated that there was not enough money to help everyone. That is why I asked the initial question. My question will be: I anticipate that there is not enough money going into business development in my riding, so I would like to ask the Minister, once he is able to provide the numbers, if the Minister would come back to the House for additional funding to support business development in the small communities?
As I have said, this government has spent $17.6 million. The SEED program is $3.8 million. We have Community Futures, which we fund as an additional $825,000. There are a number of programs and suits of needs out there that these people want.
The Member is kind of speculating that he is not getting enough money in his riding. I would have to go back and see what types of applications and what type of dollars have been spent in his region. As I said in this House earlier today, this has to be entrepreneurial-driven. We can't just be throwing money at something and hoping that it sticks. We have to work with the businesspeople in these communities who are future entrepreneurs who want to pursue these types of things, and that is what we are trying to do. The SEED policy is there to help facilitate that, with a number of programs within the Department of ITI, and we will continue to do that. That is the best I can answer the Member's question.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if there is any sort of policy that surrounds employment numbers. In my Member's statement, I referred to the dismal employment numbers that we have in the communities that I represent. I would like to ask the Minister, when spending money from the government for business development, if that is taken into consideration. Are employment numbers taken into consideration when spending money for any businesses in any of the communities in the territory? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That depends on what application, I suspect, you are doing. If you are going through BDIC or Community Futures and you are trying to get a loan to start a company, you have to have a business case to do that. That is relative to, you know, what your business case is going to be and the number of products you're going to be able to sell, and the capital that you have to invest, and the capital that we are going to invest to help support these things. When it comes to supporting the number of people hired in a community, I suspect that, depending on some of our grants and contribution programs that we have, some of those factors are part of the decision-making. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
