Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to look at an area regarding preparations for eventual gas development down in the Mackenzie Valley. In some of the briefing information that the department supplied to our committee, under a number of the department's initiatives, it talks about things underway under oil and gas. Under corporate management, reference to the Mackenzie Valley Development Planning Process, which I understand has petroleum and gas development at its core. Under environmental protection, there is reference to gas development. Under trade and investment, developing a report on issues related to value added potential. Under community, economic development services, developing economic models. Minerals, oil and gas, of course, three or four bullets talked about gas and pipeline development.
Our committee was also informed from a letter by the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) that organization has put together a northern group focused on gearing up for this. My question, Mr. Chairman, while all these things are taking shape under the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, does the Minister see a kind of central or coordinating agency that will be an umbrella, that will be a central focus for not only this government's work, but other government's departments as well in gearing up for this?
The context of my question, I guess I can relate it back to the diamond development. When that potential really started to become evident early in the 1990s, government was scrambling to catch up on its intelligence and get up to speed on its capacity. I wonder if we are seeing the same thing with the pipeline development. Is the government trying to look at this in a coordinated fashion?