Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, I think we have made some progress. The federal Minister, Mr. Robert Nault was here recently, publicly committing to moving the devolution file as expediently as possible, as well as the commitment to negotiate an agreement on revenue-sharing as expediently as possible. That is a commitment that we have long awaited. We are working now to set up an intergovernmental forum with the aboriginal governments, this government and the federal government as early as May so we can set an agenda that hopefully will include devolution and revenue-sharing, amongst other things.
We have developed an initiative that is near completion. It is an economic strategy for the Northwest Territories that is being drafted as we speak. This economic strategy will be released in the next month or so. It will speak to the things that we must consider, and that we have to take into account in moving our economic development along. We have been working for a number of years now, courting the interests of the oil and gas companies in the North. Not having jurisdiction in the area, but suggesting that there is merit in looking at renewing exploration activities in the Beaufort and Mackenzie Delta, the Sahtu and the Deh Cho.
We know full well that the aboriginal groups have been imposing a moratorium on oil and gas development in most of the Mackenzie Valley for the last 20 years. In spite of that, we have seen renewed activities in the Mackenzie Valley. We have helped to encourage the federal government to respect that and release lands for oil and gas companies to bid on. We have worked on the development of a policy on developing value-added industry with diamonds in the Northwest Territories.
So there has been some work done. We developed the Protected Areas Strategy, over a year ago, that speaks to setting aside and recognizing the lands and areas that aboriginal people in communities here in the North want to protect. These have been outlined, and are going to be implemented before major development starts to proceed here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.