Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to provide all the Members of this House with the terms of reference for that committee. The committee basically has been asked to provide me with short term, medium term and long term strategies for ensuring that we have more northerners employed by mines.
One of the major reasons for setting up this committee was that, as Members will remember, last spring, after we had run the pre-employment mine training program, which had been designed in co-operation with BHP, and the college, we were finding that graduates of that program were not able to find jobs with other mining companies in the Northwest Territories. As a result of that, I thought it was necessary to bring representatives from a broader cross-section of mines than just BHP to the table, to find out what we needed to do to ensure that the graduates of our training programs could get jobs with them.
One of the things that the committee told me was that there needed to be a better way of marketing graduates to the companies, and that is one of the reasons we are moving on this.
In addition to that initiative, as I said, they have committed to providing me with short term, medium term and long term strategy advice on how our training programs should be set up. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to provide all Members with a copy of the terms of reference. The cost of that committee so far, is minimal. I think I have bought them lunch three times. The Member will be happy to know it has been nothing more than sandwiches and the odd pickle. To date, there have been no costs paid for transportation. Members participate by teleconference when necessary. So there will be some long-distance charges in there. But by and large, this is a very efficiently run committee. As I said, industry has committed to providing one-third of the cost to the mining coordinator's position. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause.