Thank you. Mr. Speaker, in March of this year, the NWT Development Corporation informed Dene Fur Clouds that its northern designed sample product lines, months in the development, would not be produced, citing problems with the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur initiative. Commitments to further investment also went by the wayside. Dene Fur Clouds subsequently suspended operations in May and closed down, years of work seemingly wasted.

Mr. Speaker, it is critical that the GNWT implement a focused and coherent fur strategy for the North that will allow the primary fur producing industry and secondary manufacturing industries to complement each other so that we can be manufacturing and exporting high value products from the North. Perhaps the same vigour that was applied to the establishment of a secondary diamond industry can be brought to bear on the fur industry in the North also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause