Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it was very reassuring to hear the Minister inform my colleague from Nunakput that our abattoir is in fact not portable, and it will not be going anywhere. I suggest Mr. Steen, bring his reindeer to Hay River before we take the abattoir to Tuktoyaktuk.
Mr. Chairman, as you are aware, Hay River is a level one community, and I just wanted to respond to a comment that the Minister made in the House yesterday when he referred to Hay River as a thriving, entrepreneurial community. At that time I thanked the Minister for his kinds words and, indeed, Hay River does have a very diverse economy, but when I heard my colleague from Yellowknife South talking about the possibility of having Yellowknife downgraded to a level two or three community, I have to take this opportunity to jump in and say that, although the economic base in Hay River is quite diversified, there are many industries in that town which, without some even small level or degree of government support, are not going to be viable and may find themselves on the ropes. I refer to industries such as manufacturing, forestry, commercial fishing, construction, all of these areas, even the egg production facilities in Hay River, all of these industries that I have listed are reliant, to some extent, on the actions that this government takes and on the kinds of purchases that they make. So although Hay River does not like to spend a lot of time, shall we say, bemoaning our state; at the same time we try to be resourceful and look for new ways of doing things. I do not want to give anybody the wrong impression that there are not industries that would be significantly negatively impacted without some degree of government support. I am glad that the Minister referred to his department's need to enhance and support existing economic activities, as well as spending money on spawning new business.
With that, I would just like to ask the Minister if the closure of the Hay River Abattoir, and the fact that Hay River is a level one community did come to bear in that decision with the Northwest Territories Development Corporation refocussing, and so on, if our level one status was an issue in that decision? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.