Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to oil and gas, minerals oil and gas, I see 2000-2001, $2,737,000. I am just wondering, with all the talk there is about oil and gas and getting ready for the development in that area, just looking at the figures here, there seems to be a decrease this year, as compared to previous years. You would think that in the stress that we are putting on the development for oil and gas and getting prepared for it, that there would be an increase there.

Does that figure indicate what we are doing in the oil and gas industry at all?

Mr. Chairman, the biggest change from last year to this year, is last year the department provided Giant Mine with exploration assistance. I do not recall exactly how much it was. It was to be up to $1.5 million but we did not spend all of that on it. So there is a decrease there. We are not doing that this year, but we did add in some additional positions into minerals, oil and gas.

So the net amount appears to be lower, but if you take away the commitments that were made to Giant Mine, we are actually spending more on oil and gas than we were last year through minerals, oil and gas.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I think the information was provided to the committee and we have it here, if you will just give us a minute to find it.

Mr. Chairman, if we look at the oil and gas side of minerals, oil and gas, we are committing $1,811,000 this year. To the minerals side, we are committing $926,000. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was wondering in the oil and gas exploration field, we are getting ready for it, has there been any consultation with communities or is there anything being looked at as far as Hay River being the rail head and shipping centre? Are there any areas being looked at there that, such as an impact study on Hay River as far as getting ready for oil and gas? Has anybody been looking at that at all?

Mr. Chairman, no, we have not looked at any impact study. Although we have been working with the businesses, the aboriginal groups, and individual business leaders and so on, on their plans, regarding oil and gas.

At this point, to do any sort of impact study would be speculative because we do not know for sure what is happening. Hopefully, if we are lucky, we will end up with a pipeline coming down the valley and there will be a lot of activity. On the other hand, we might find ourselves being frozen out by the pipeline going through Alaska.

So up to now, it has been consultation and where there has been business interest. For example, in the Hay River Reserve, we have been working with companies like Dene Directional Drilling. We have not done an impact study. I think it is probably a bit premature yet. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would think that there would be a fair bit of interest in Hay River as far as any development in the oil and gas sector, the manufacturing and especially with the shipping and NTCL.

I am just wondering, who will have input when we talk about putting in for oil and gas advisory positions? As you mentioned in the House yesterday, when oil and gas for the Deh Cho is going to Fort Simpson, I was wondering who had input as to where that position would be set up?

Mr. Chairman, we have been hearing from a lot of communities with regard to positions, as well as requests from them for contributions. In fact, we have met with the Hay River Town Council. We have given them a contribution of $30,000 to work with us on some of these things.

With regard to the position for the Deh Cho going to Fort Simpson, while we hear many views from people wanting it to be in Liard or wanting it to be in Simpson, or Kakisa or Hay River or wherever; we had to make a call ourselves. Given the amount of activity going on in the Liard Valley and Western side of the Deh Cho, it was our view that the position would be best located in Fort Simpson. That is our regional office for the Deh Cho. We just chose to put it there because that is where the activity is.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is in regard to the Northwest Territories Development Corporation and in regard to the history that it has had. It has seen a rough ride in the last couple of years, especially with some of the bad investments we have found ourselves in, especially in the marketing of our different products where we were set up these storefront operations in southern Canada, in Banff, Toronto, Vancouver and different areas across the country.

I would like to ask the Minister, are we clear of all outstanding debts and costs that were associated with the storefront operations and marketing of Arctic goods in southern Canada?

Mr. Chairman, yes, we do not have any outstanding liabilities on that at all. We are clear of it.

Thank you. Can the Minister tell us what the final cost was to the government to pay out these leases at these different storefronts, especially in places like Toronto International Airport and other places in Canada?

Mr. Chairman, I do not believe we had to pay out any leases. In the case of the Toronto International Airport, the stores there, those and the warehouse, were taken over by Nunavut, so they just assumed the responsibility for it.

In the other areas, in Calgary, they were in the process of changing locations. The one in Victoria was closed part way through the last fiscal year. The one in White Rock we closed, but again, without any liability for ongoing lease costs.

So there was not a lot of money owed for leases. The biggest one, Toronto, as I said, was taken over by Nunavut.