Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I spoke earlier, there's a $63 million bill that's come due. Many northern businesses are struggling with that loss of revenue. Will the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment provide zero interest loans to NWT businesses who are impacted by the Ekati creditor protection to secure their cash flows which will prevent further layoffs until there is a resolution of these court proceedings? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of ITI.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to speak with Prosper NWT to see if any businesses have contacted them to ask them specifically for that. That is our lending arm, as we do that work through Prosper NWT, and I'd be happy to reach out to them to find out if they've had outreach from the business community. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, that's good due diligence, but I think it'd be better if we just announced we were going to do it and invited businesses to apply. So I will ask again, will the Minister direct Prosper NWT to announce those loans that are available, to provide those loans, to make the cash available to those communities? Because if we don't, I fear we will have more job losses in our communities. And not just here in Yellowknife, but across the territory, and every job loss in a regional centre or small community is worth ten or more in the capital. So we need to stop this before it gets worse. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would want to ensure that the supports we're providing to business is responsive to what businesses are looking for. So certainly, like I said to the Member, I would definitely want to follow up with Prosper to ffind out if they have had outreach from the business community. And then part of the work that we're doing right now is actually talking to the business community about what it is that they're looking for -- and that's not just in Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker, that's outside of Yellowknife as well -- and making sure that we're being responsive.
One of the things that we're hearing from businesses right now is they want the ability to upscale if need be, so to take out loans, yes, those still exist, and then to be able to retrain workers. And we've recently secured $1.5 million extra from the federal government to beef up our workforce development programs because we definitely believe that making sure that Northerners participate in this work is incredibly important.
Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand that we have to think of the future, and we are planning for the future. We've got a lot of work to do there. I agree with that side of the House on this. But what I am talking about is this immediate problem. So the Minister surely has heard concerns from the business community, from the Aurora Group, I am sure, from others. I am speculating here. But can she report to the House those conversations she's had with businesses impacted by this creditor freeze and how she is responding to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the conversations that I am hearing most from the business community are we need to make sure that we have opportunities in front of fus tomorrow, we need to make sure that we have opportunities in front of us that get us to the other side of the river, we need that suspension bridge between diamond mining and building roads and building DND infrastructure. That is the primary concern I am hearing from the business community. So making sure that we're being transparent about our own procurement opportunities from the GNWT, and people are aware of them regionally is incredibly important, but also making sure that we have information to the business community about other opportunities that we know that are coming up as well in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of IT. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
