Thank you. Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Todd.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Right now, we do have the consultants, a Mr. Grossman and Mr. Kostenko, working on it out of Toronto. I guess it is fair to say it is a fairly complicated investment approach. If we come to the conclusion we should do one, it will require some legislative change and it will require some support from the federal government in terms of guarantees through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, et cetera.

I am trying to fast-track this because we recognize there is a sense of urgency out there. However, in fairness to the honourable Member, I suspect that within the next 90 to 120 days we will know whether it is worthwhile to continue to pursue this and we will know whether, in fact, it has some serious potential to succeed. Once we have accomplished that, I am told by Mr. Grossman, it would take somewhere between six and eight months to put both the legal and legislative framework in place. So, I guess, optimistically, we could be looking at somewhere in the region of 12 months. It is certainly my intent to try to fast-track it.

I do want to caution the honourable Member and others, of course, that part of the initial review that we are currently doing is to determine if this mortgage investment corporation has potential and can clear the hurdles, if you want, that are necessary to put it in place. I am optimistic. I am hoping that the report will indicate that we should proceed, and if we should, I want to assure the honourable Member that it is my intention to try to move as quickly as possible with it and keep the House and, in particular, the Standing Committee on Finance, fully informed. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you. Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Todd.

In fairness to the honourable Member, I used the number to demonstrate the leverage between three and five times the money to show that it could, in fact, theoretically, bring a $250 million mortgage investment corporation to the table. In the presentation that was done by Mr. Grossman to the Standing Committee on Finance, the Member is correct. It was significantly less. I believe we had indicated that if we could seed this to the total of $5 million and perhaps look at external and northern money to bring it into a $25 million pot, then from there we would lever it three to five times. So, the comments yesterday were mainly to illustrate how we could lever this particular investment corporation at three to five times, and I apologize if it has confused the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for High Arctic, Mr. Pudluk.