Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Previous to my assuming this portfolio, the subsidiaries under the Development Corporation had used products ranging from moccasins to dolls and carvings, through subsidiaries, most of which are located now in the territory of Nunavut. There was no concerted effort to market and no particular operation that did exclusive marketing. Since assuming the portfolio, we have seen the creation of Arctic Trading Company which, again, marketed mostly eastern Arctic products, and also set up certain outlets in southern Canada, namely, I believe, in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary and Toronto, are the stores that the marketing arm set up and operated. With division happening the marketing arm, Arctic Trading, found itself as a million dollar operation with very little produce, in fact, left to market since the Eastern Arctic

has insisted that they will set up their own operations and do not wish to use Arctic Trading any longer. That is, in very general terms, what has been happening over the last three years. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, because of the impact of division and because of concerns with the Auditor General that have been outstanding for some years, that we have been unable to resolve substantially, although the documents that we provided to the standing committee on the review of the Main Estimates were given the target of a lower $4 million for the Development Corporation, we have in fact asked that in view of the impact of division, and the need to look at Arctic Trading and the size of headquarters to ask the Development Corporation to look at putting together a new work plan with a reduced allocation to the Development Corporation. Mr. Soloy, who was the President at that time, had undertaken to develop such a business plan. We had indicated to the standing committee at that time that was what we intended to do.

There is still no revised business plan prepared by the Development Corporation since the new President at this time is reviewing the operations and reviewing the concerns of the Auditor General and meeting with the Development Corporation subsidiaries to get a good understanding of the state of the Development Corporation before undertaking to meet the commitment that I have asked him to meet. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said earlier, because of division the amount of product that the Arctic Trading Company is expected to market has been reduced substantially. There is very little product from the eastern Arctic, very few subsidiaries that are, in fact, being serviced by the Development Corporation since division. Therefore it is difficult to rationalize continuing to fund the Development Corporation, specifically the headquarters and the Arctic Trading Company at the level that we were funding it previous to division. That was the reason I had asked if the Development Corporation President could prepare a new business plan to meet the reduction in overall funding of the operations of the Development Corporation. It was not intended to reduce the funding we give to the subsidiaries or to the level of subsidies that we provide to the community operations that we have. I think that should be clear.

Members are also aware that with the sunsetting of the Northern Employment Strategy, we are short of funding for operations like the Community Futures and there is a demand by communities and regions to set up loan operations as we have, and we need to free up funding in other areas in order to meet this demand as well. The intent is to recognize that the Development Corporation is no longer of the size that it was previous to division and, with the impact of division, it is my expectation that we can reduce the level of funding to the Development Corporation without impacting negatively the viability and ongoing operations of those businesses that we have set up in the communities. In fact, we will do what we can to enhance those through the reduction and reallocation of resources. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Development Corporation has not submitted a revised business plan or prepared one that could be reviewed by myself at this time. That is underway. We have indicated to them that the level of funding that we give them will be reduced and the challenge to the Development Corporation President is to try to meet that target. What specifically they are doing, I am not certain exactly what has been done to date but I believe that an outlet that had been set up by Mr. Soloy, for instance, in BC outside of Vancouver, is closing or has been closed and we are also looking at closing an outlet in Calgary. Both of these

locations have been losing money and have been a drain on the resources of the Development Corporation. I would require more information before I can give other specific measures that may have been undertaken at this time. Thank you.