Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to make a few comments. In reading the report in committee, I was awaiting information from the department and I am happy to say we have that information. I hope the Minister is prepared with me to take this page-by-page as we go through the department. You have a lot of filler information in here. Thank you for providing it, but as you are aware, we just received this as we returned back to prepare for this. Many of my colleagues have not had the opportunity to go through this. As I sit here I am trying to go through it but it is taking some time.

That goes to the process of the information, why we as Members have requested a layout that all departments will use. Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development did have a fairly good presentation during the committee review, and there were many questions. As a result of some of the questions, some of that information was not available. The Minister did provide a lot of information that we are going to need to go through, as time permits. I will not go page by page, and will throw this on here, but I will ask some clarification on some of this because you have a lot of information in one section alone, that will apply further into the details.

I will have some questions in the area of some of the previous work that has been done in reference to this department when it comes to the amount of different lending agencies it uses when it comes to business development and business support. What role they are playing, and possibly what this budget will do, or what this department will do to try to deal with some of the issues that were raised. There is previous work in the report that was done that I will use as we go through the detail here. We have heard through a lot of discussion, it was raised in committee, the concerns that remain out there about the roles that this department plays.

Almost from day one, when it was said to do the amalgamation, there were concerns of the roles one department would play in trying to develop the North, and another role of trying to protect the North. It is not an easy task to do within each department, and it is not something that you would envy doing, especially, when number one, you are being moved around and some jobs were reduced and a lot of funding was pulled out of the departments that were used, or previously did the functions, now carried out from the one department. It would be nice to have a summary at some point, I do not expect it at this point, but of how far the department feels it has come since being first amalgamated. That might try to address the concerns raised by the private sector, by government itself, and by the committee and Members.

A lot has been done. A lot of water has gone under the bridge, so to speak, but there remains much water yet to be tread, so to speak, and to move forward on. I will save the details until we go through here. There is concern with the information that has been there. Again, I thank the Minister for providing it, but we did receive it rather late, I must say. Understandably, we are all operating under the gun here and trying to deal with this budget cycle and having the late election and all, and having us sit here this month and possibly into the next month. But we must do the best we can and hopefully the Minister will have information and responses to the questions we will raise as a result of the information being provided, and putting it on record.

We have had many questions in committee that only the committee members and the Minister and his department were able to deal with. Hopefully, at this forum, he will be able to put on record some of the issues that were raised and some of the plans of the department in trying to deal with some of the concerns out there in the potential development, as well, facing us in the Northwest Territories. And, as well, how the department will work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the private sector. As I stated earlier, the trip to Calgary was very beneficial because we heard from a lot of the companies that are willing to do work in the Northwest Territories, and some which have signed deals now, that are willing to do their part when it comes to the training section of our residents. It just seems that one of the pieces of the puzzle, a fairly significant one, is our government. Hopefully the Minister will be able to put some emphasis on that and have some measurable outcomes as to how we can see this being done and achieved. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.