Wally Schumann

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that's right. 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...

I can make that submission. That is not an issue. I have already brought up the issue around the shortfall of funding from our department. We will make our case, and I will continue to do that. When it comes time to deliberate the next budget and when I have a look at the data from the SEED program, I will certainly make that decision at that point.

The Member is talking about hypotheticals, because I said that's where they could go if they had an issue with it. We don't know if there is an issue with it. Each region has their own allocation for SEED money. If there is some sort of over-pouring amount of money that we have to have a look at, I will certainly have a look at the situation.

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have mentioned, there is only so much money that this government has. We have our processes and deliberations on how we want to spend that money, and everyone in this House is included. This is what I have been allocated, and I will continue to fight for more money for my department, but as the Member quite knows, there is not enough money to go around for everything this government wants to achieve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think the Member better take his rose-coloured glasses off, the way he's making comments, there. I have had a few people; like I have said, probably five people. I'm going to stay to five people who have come to me about procurement. The chair of SCEDE is doing a report. I will sit down and have that conversation with SCEDE, but I am not going to sit here and get into a debate if it's one, 10, or 15 people. If the Member has 15 people coming to him, maybe he should come to my office. He doesn't stop by my office and talk about procurement issues. He can do that any time he wants...

I am assuming the Member is speculating about the availability of goods and supplies for those operations. Again, we are not aware of this as an immediate concern. We recognize that this is an extraordinary situation that we are dealing with. There is no manual with all the answers, but we are addressing the reality of this situation head-on.

As the Minister of Infrastructure, I assure the Member and this House and the people of Nunakput that we will do what we need to do. I have said that continually in this House. We can't do everything, particularly around a number of questions I always get...

Yes, 2020 is coming due, and we have made successful milestones. As all Members of this House know, we have already achieved probably what we wanted to there as far as number of tourists coming to the Northwest Territories and the amount of money spent in the NWT. We will continue to work on that. We will probably be releasing some of those numbers shortly, of last year's visitations and money spent in the NWT, and I think most Members will be happy.

We will be working closely with all proponents, being us and Members of this House, for feedback, as well as NWT Tourism to develop 2025. I just...

As I have said, I only have the money that is allocated to me, but I am glad to sit down with committee. Anytime they want to have a discussion on how we can improve different funding levels for different programs within my portfolio, I am glad to do that, but the real crux of this is we only have so much money that this government has. If you are going to give it to me, you are going to have to take it from someone else on this side of the room, so that is the hard discussion that we are going to have to make here. Without increasing revenues in this territory and attracting more capital and...