Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the idea behind that suggestion. I can tell the Member that the Department of Finance, and me as Minister of Finance, along, of course, with the Premier and the Minister of health, do meet regularly, weekly, with the Chief Public Health Officer. What I will do is commit to raising that at the next meeting, having brought this forward here and being responsible for bringing forward the supplemental. I will commit to raising it and getting back to the Member as to what the response is, but I am concerned that that might not be as easy as just saying that we'll...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think there is a sort of general rule that I am not supposed to run down the clock, but I could easily talk about the resource sector for 20 minutes. I won't do that, Madam Speaker. The mineral resource sector is, I would say continues to be, extremely important. It's still the foundation of the economy here from the private sector and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

There are quite a number of things that are happening right now in the Department of ITI to support that sector. For example, there have been quite a number of active conversations just...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can give you some detail on what the funding is intended for, and then I would turn it over to the Minister of health for any update as to what may or may not have happened in the course of the pandemic. The funding under the agreement is to be used firstly for licensing of the various types of software that is required; the hardware itself, which would include iPads, iPhones, and laptops that will actually allow for that care to be provided virtually; and also support for staff in terms of setting up that hardware, training, and setting up the teleconferencing...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I had noted last week, we are committed to doing an internal review of the SEED policy, and included within that will be the market disruption clause. The larger communities versus the smaller communities in different regional centres have different views on whether or not market disruption is beneficial or necessary, with those opinions going very strongly one way or another. In the middle of a pandemic is not an opportunity to wholesale change that, but that is why there is the COVID-related stream that doesn't have the market disruption clause in it so that for...

The longer-term strategy for small businesses, I'll refer, again, to the fact that we had fast-tracked the procurement review. To that extent, I want to be very clear that it's my intention that that review engages those small businesses directly, engages the chambers, engages Indigenous governments, Indigenous development corporations, really looks broadly at what it is that we need to do to support the business community in all of its facets here in the Northwest Territories. Again, ensuring that we have interim measures in place before January, but also then is engaging for COVID related...

I think I'm going to speak perhaps with my Department of Finance hat on, as well as with ITI. Really, I suppose it's a whole-of-government response that is going to be required in light of the question, and certainly, to the extent that Procurement Shared Services, which now falls under Finance, is responsible for managing and supporting those contracts. Indeed as far as Procurement Shared Services goes, for all of its client departments, it has not only the Department of Infrastructure, but all client departments. I'm sure they will do their very best to work with the client departments and...

Madam Speaker, one of our government's guiding principles is to ensure that the expenditure of public funds maximizes economic benefits to Northerners and supports northern business. This is consistent with our long-standing commitment to support Northwest Territories businesses and grow a strong, diversified economy.

We put that commitment into practice through the Business Incentive and Manufactured Products Policies, which help ensure that government purchases are made from, or through, Northwest Territories-owned businesses wherever possible, and to leverage this investment back into our...

Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member from Hay River North, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the second time. The bill reduces the small business tax rate from 4 percent to 2 percent effective January 1, 2020. It also makes retroactive amendments to harmonize the Northwest Territories tax regime with the federal system. Those amendments do two things: ensure that split income received by a senior is factored into the determination of their Territorial Age Credit; and allow more pension credit for veterans. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

There is actually a Buy North campaign already that the department of ITI has been sponsoring. It's free for all businesses to participate in the program. It's being advertised around the Northwest Territories, though, given the question, it seems that perhaps the knowledge about the program needs to be looked at again. As for what might be done to increase or enhance the participation in the program for businesses and what we can do, I will certainly go and see if there are some best practices from my colleagues in other parts of the country, that we can employ here in advance of the...

I am certainly not one to shy away from the fact that we need to react quickly to what's happening with COVID-19 and react quickly to what's happening in the business community. However, at the same time, I am also determined that we have to maintain our due diligence before making a policy change that is to a program that has been long-standing, so I am not going to take a position here on the floor today that we will significantly alter that program going forward.

The Member has certainly given me an interesting way of approaching business relief. There are a lot of programs that are out...