Thank you. One of the things we have done is initiate with the Department of Finance and Regulatory Reform Initiative, an office has been set up. Mr. Alan Downe has headed up that initiative on our behalf. He has actually now gotten into doing research with the business community and other stakeholders and asking some very specific questions. For instance, what type of environment is the business community working under now, how can we help to improve the environment under which the business communities operate, and what are the specific suggestions they have in that regard? So there are some specific things being done, and the Regulatory Reform will, instead of waiting for a big package to develop. As soon as we are convinced that we can streamline and simplify a sector of the operating environment, we will move to do those. The simple ones, we will do right away. The reforms that require legislative change, those type of things, we will do later.
We have made contact with the oil and gas industry and let them know that we are open for business. We have said that we do not write the rules for oil and gas exploration in the north. We have some suggestions that we have prepared with the support of the oil and gas industry to suggest to the federal government to change so that industry and ourselves can work towards a more business-friendly type of legislative base.
In mining, we have done the same thing. We understand that people want to know what the rules are up front. They do not want to take on a piece of work only to find out later that there are more costs being added on after the fact that they have to negotiate two or three times before they get into business. We have developed an economic framework that would give an opportunity for Members of the Legislature and the public, a fairly clear view, right across the board, of what the state of the north is and the government in terms of what kind of money, programs and support we give to different sectors of the economy. For instance, in fisheries, in mining, in handicraft, trapping, lumber business, every sector of the economy; we have developed a framework so that people know where we are spending money and where we are not, how many programs we have in each sector. It gives a basis for asking us questions. Why are we putting so much money in one sector and not the other?
We have done that. We are also at a state now where the NWT Development Corporation, which is the main vehicle we have for actually initiating economic initiatives in level two and level three communities. It has been brought to a state where it can. It is stabilized. All the subsidiaries that it has have been basically taken control of financially. They are not losing money to the extent they were when this government was elected. So, as a Minister now, I am in the position to, with some credibility, suggest that we put more money into the development corporation so that they can work with our communities, receive suggestions from the communities on initiatives where they could invest some money to create jobs. We will continue to put more and more effort into actually going to community by community on request to sit down with these communities, to look at the existing activities that are going on in those communities, identify opportunities where we can create businesses and jobs, and let the communities take the lead. But as a department, offer to work in partnership in support of them to take better advantage of their existing activities and existing opportunities to create jobs, to create businesses.
This is where I think we are at in our efforts to try to enhance the economic conditions here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.