Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Cabinet is in support of the initiative that I have outlined earlier today. Cabinet is in support of developing an economic strategy in partnership with aboriginal peoples here in the Northwest Territories, along with industry and the business community. It is our view that we can best provide support to our partners and to aboriginal leaders by preparing to be as well-informed, organized and well scoped in our view and thinking, as we can be. This is what we are positioning ourselves to do. By getting our deputy ministers initially to work together through a committee, we want to be able to scope out the work and the activities, the opportunities and the potential for opportunities as interest starts to pick up.

As Members know, the federal government still controls all resource development in the Northwest Territories, but we have, as a government, become important players in deciding the pace and the terms and conditions under which development will happen. We have chosen clearly and explicitly to do that in partnership with aboriginal people. This is our way of indicating to aboriginal people that we want to make sure that they benefit from resource development and as a government, we will position ourselves so we are as well-informed and versed in defining the scope of activity early on as possible so we can all help each other decide if development should happen and, if so, under what terms and conditions and what resources will be required to make sure that we all benefit from that. Thank you.