Mr. Speaker, the issue is related to mines. It is related to economic development, so I would be the lead minister. The senior official, that is leading the work on behalf of the government is Andrew Gamble, the deputy

minister to the Executive since the Department of Finance, the Department of Economic Development, Resources and Wildlife is involved; as well as Education, Culture and Employment. So, I am the lead Minister. The lead deputy minister is Andrew Gamble. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is immediate work that was undertaken by an official in Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Graham Dargo, along with officials from Education, Culture and Employment dealing with the employees who were given layoff notices at the end of the year. That was a specific initiative that we undertook. This initiative, at the senior management level was started in specific response to Miramar. We have on this group, a working group that is set up with the City of Yellowknife, the union, the company, and federal officials to look at ways in which we can assist that specific mine and deal with the difficulties as I outlined earlier in my statement. The commitment to Members here is that we will, on a daily basis if necessary, on a weekly basis, provide information on the developments and decisions and status of discussions that are held by the different partners in that initiative. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in regard to Royal Oak Mines or Giant Mines, we had a meeting with them yesterday, along with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. They have also

expressed a need for some cooperation on our part to help them bridge the period of difficulty they are experiencing because of the drop in gold prices. They have made some suggestions on ways in which we could help them bridge this period of difficulty. There are areas that are a specific responsibility of the federal government, things like reclamation, environmental issues, and the way in which the arsenic issue should be approached. Those are being directed to the federal government. We have made sure that we have given assurance to Royal Oak representatives that the same approach we have taken to dealing with Miramar will be taken with them and try to take a cooperative, multiparty approach, so that everyone involved will have plenty of time to explore ways in which they can help in these rather difficult times for the company. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the difficult situation that our community, Yellowknife, is in. I made some reference to the gold mining situation. It is not just Yellowknife that is affected when we speak of gold mines. Colomac closed which affects communities in that area. Lupin closed that affects communities on the Arctic coast. Now earlier this week, there were rumours and comments in the press and radio that Giant was trying to seek a meeting with the territorial Cabinet Ministers, and that meeting took place yesterday. Then this morning, a meeting took place with the federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs. As a start, I wonder if Minister Kakfwi could tell us what the results were of their meeting, the territorial Ministers' meeting with the Giant people? He just mentioned that they discussed ways and means of expanding how the territorial and federal governments could help. Could he expand on that for us, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the case of Miramar, Members will recall that we basically had a meeting very late in the year at which time Miramar indicted to us, in strict confidence, that in order to deal with the drop in gold prices, but also to deal with the fact that they found the rate of the mill work, the load of mill work that they had undertaken a few years previously was proving to be consistently uneconomical, that they were dropping the tonnage, the daily amount of ore that they were going to produce and this would lead to layoff. In the case of Giant they have come to us and simply said we have no intentions of laying off anyone at this time or of closing our operations, but we want you to be aware, here is how much.. this is the required price of gold that we require in order to break even. It is well below the price and so we are now operating at a loss. How long we can operate at a loss is not solely within our control. We give you notice that we need some cooperation from everyone, the City of Yellowknife, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the federal government, the price of gold markets in order to keep it viable, keep it operating and that it serves no one for us to shut down waiting for the price of gold to come back up. Therefore, we need some indication from you that you are prepared to work with us to address some of these options and we simply said we are happy that they have given us this advance notice, this opportunity and that we would be prepared as we are with Miramar on looking at the different options. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The meeting this morning with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's Minister, Jane Stewart; the Minister in their briefing earlier today touched on comments and there were many areas that they naturally would touch base on, but I am wondering if the Minister could tell us if he expanded upon the request for assistance for the mining industry here in the north considering, Mr. Speaker, that DIAND has the responsibility for mining and resources here in the Northwest Territories. They get the royalties. They also get the benefits from employee taxation, corporation taxation, and so forth. So, it stands to reason that they should be intimately and very aggressively in our northern mining industry. I wonder if the Minister could tell us whether they got a response from the Minister this morning, Jane Stewart, on the request to support the northern mining industry.

Mr. Speaker, it is true we met with the Minister this morning. We have informed her of this multiparty cooperative approach we have taken to dealing with the developments of mining in Yellowknife and other parts of the territories. Of course she did not need to be reminded that the federal government collects the royalties, the benefits from mining developments in the north; that she is responsible for lands and resources in the Northwest Territories and as such has some obligation to look at ways in which you could assist in making sure that mining continues and that jobs are not lost because of fluctuating world prices of minerals, particularly gold and that exploration work, the cost of exploration particularly, is very high in the Northwest Territories and that for her contribution in this multiparty initiative she should look at ways in which she could help abstract mines that are currently in production to find the means, perhaps through assistance from the federal government to continue their exploration programs, so that they are not viable for just another two or three years, but further than that, so it makes it worthwhile for the rest of us to continue trying to find ways to make sure they remain operational and viable on the short term. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Speaking about exploration work, I understand that Con has terminated its exploration program because it does not pay for it at the present moment to enter into it, and Giant I am not sure what they are doing at the moment, but these are multimillion dollar programs and in order to keep the mines viable in the long run, and sustainable, they need exploration programs. Will the Minister or did the Minister address the question to the federal Minister to initiate a program for exploration money? Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker that was a specific suggestion that we made to the Minister this morning. Thank you.