Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have a going forward agreement which has been renewed this year. I guess the potential is up to... The total amount in the going forward agreement is for $3.2 million over a four-year period.

The direction that I’ve provided to not only BDIC but also to the Department of ITI is that we want to work towards the objective of having an ongoing operation in every community in the Northwest Territories. So that’s our objective. We only have limited resources, so in the long term we are definitely interested in having something in Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. We are working at establishing new economic development initiatives right now. We’re looking at establishing at least three every year. Ultimately we’ll have something in every community. Certainly if there is a business...

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to present the 2010-2011 Main Estimates for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

ITI’s mandate is to promote economic self-sufficiency through responsible development of the NWT’s natural resources and the promotion of tourism, trade, investment, business and manufacturing to create a prosperous, diverse and sustainable economy for the benefit of all residents.

This mandate supports the commitment of our government that all residents of the NWT must have the opportunity to build a stronger future for themselves, their families and their communities. In...

The Government of the Northwest Territories has identified $2 million this year. It’s located in the budget of ENR. So that’s where it’s identified right now, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

We’ll ensure that we do that. I think we have existing programs through our Aftercare Program.

We did consult with committee and the direction we had was to focus on the small communities and there was no indication at that time that we should be giving all of our money to established businesses. In our view, we are providing funds to the people that we were asked to focus on, which was in the smaller communities, the smaller businesses. In 2008-2009 the SEED program expenditures totalled $1.8 million and the funds grew to $2.9 million which was distributed to 437 approved applicants. Of this, 48 percent went directly to entrepreneurs including business corporation proprietors and other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of our energy priority investments, our alternative energy priority investments, we’ve identified biomass as probably one of the biggest and most important parts of this initiative and this is something that we’ve identified significant investments over the three years of the $5 million and we’re working and participating with the Department of ENR on the development of a draft Biomass Strategy. We are also participating in the Biomass Working Group. For your information, or you may already be aware, this group includes representation from the Government of the...

Generally we would only look at those businesses that we are involved with either though BDIC or through the officers that we have working in the different regions or community transfer economic development officers. Essentially that’s how it would come about.

As the Member knows, we have a variety of delivery agents. We have community transfer EDO positions, we have ITI economic development officer positions, and we have a protocol agreement between BDIC and ITI as to how we can function and deliver programs. We also have Community Futures boards in every region that deliver programs and services. We work closely with BDIC, who allocates lending limits or allocates lending privileges to the different regions with regard to the loans that are delivered by BDIC. With all these different arrangements we’re able to deliver all the programs of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In Lutselk’e we’re making very good progress and to the extent that we’re investing more money and we’re fast tracking the project, and with regard to the three-year expenditures from ‘09-10 to ‘11-12 we’ll have invested $4 million. So we’re making good progress there.

In Whati we still have to sort out some issues with the Tlicho Government and with the change in leadership. We’re requesting meetings so that we can clarify the direction that the Tlicho Government wants to go to, but we have expended about $250,000. We’re looking at spending about $1.5 million in Whati, Mr...