Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can the Minister give us a list or breakdown of who is partaking in the alliance? You mentioned yourself, the Housing Corporation...are the people from the manufacturer associations involved? Are there private sector involved in this? Can you give us a breakdown of who is involved in the alliance? Does that also include the people from the private sector, such as industry and the aboriginal organizations?

Mr. Chairman, the funding partners, the ones who have a dollar commitment with the Energy Alliance include Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Public Works and Services, the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, and Municipal and Community Affairs. As well, there are other individuals and representatives of various groups who sit on it. I believe that the Northern Manufacturer's Association is one of them. There are also individuals who have an interest who are on the committees. There is environmental group representation on it as well, but those are not funding partners. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am aware that there was some work done on behalf of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development in 1997 that looked at their structures. There were some recommendations done that looked at the different areas of business which Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is involved in. For example, the Business Credit Corporation, the Northwest Territories Development Corporation, the community futures organizations, are a number of areas that Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is involved with that are outside the department.

The department itself also has some lending authority to small businesses in the communities and regions. I know that there is work done and recommendations done, but to date we have not seen changes. I would like to know from the Minister, what work is being done to streamline the activities of the department, where there are a number of duplications and inefficiencies when it comes to the lending of money and the reporting and the different roles that the department is involved with? Can the Minister inform us as to any changes that have gone on? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we are very aware of the concern the Member has expressed. I am looking at the feasibility of having a more co-ordinated effort, or possibly just one window for some of the major pieces within the department's responsibility that loan money or give grants and so on. These include the Business Credit Corporation, the community economic development services, as well as some of our own business development funds that we manage through the department.

This exercise is in its preliminary stages, I have met with the board of the Northwest Territories Development Corporation. I still have to meet with the board of the Business Credit Corporation and certainly want to do this in collaboration with the various boards that are established to support these services.

Mr. Chairman, again, it is one of these exercises that, while it is a priority, there just simply has not been time in the last five months to be able to report substantial progress in putting these various initiatives together. It is going to be a process that is going to be undertaken over the next few months and probably over the next year.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Business Credit Corporation was initially to have been a Crown corporation. One of the concerns out of this report was that you would feel that as a Crown corporation, it would be at an arms length from the Government of the Northwest Territories, but in fact it is rather closely linked. Has there been any change since then? I understand that as the 14th Assembly, we have only been in operation since mid-January. However, the fact is that there has been a report that has been in the hands of the department since 1997, so have there been some changes to try and remedy the concerns that were listed or implement some of the recommendations? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the Business Credit Corporation is managed by a director who reports to a board. The board is appointed by the Minister and is representative of most, if not all, of the regions in the Territory. The department only provides administrative support to the Business Credit Corporation. The direction the board takes is set in the Business Credit Corporation Act, though it is to some extent more at arms length then what it might appear, because of the administrative support that is provided through the department.

Rather then going and trying to improve each of these entities on their own, my intention is to review all of our loans, grants, and contributions, and come up with a vehicle or vehicles that meet our needs. I am not going to undertake an exercise now to try and improve the Business Credit Corporation. I think we have to look at the whole picture instead. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree, and the Minister stated when we were reviewing this in committee that there was work to be done in this area. But I go back to the fact that this has been in the department's hands since 1997. Recommendations were made, one of the big ones, and this was prior to division, that the work that was going on up to division was to set up one agency that would take care of this. So is the Minister saying that we are going to start looking at it now, and work to having that as a goal to be achieved in the near future?

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister inform us again, I know that he mentioned some timelines earlier, can you give us some timelines, just for clarification, as to when we might see a model coming forward on this? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, as I said earlier, I have not met with all of the boards that are responsible for the different functions. I would like to do that first before setting very tight timeframes as to when we will bring a report back to the Ordinary Members or the committees.

I hope to have a model put together, or at least options, within a year. My guess is that it may even be possible to do that sooner, but I have to talk to the boards first. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. The Minister stated that he would be looking at bringing some models forward or work on a model. Will he in fact be using the recommendation that was brought forward in this report to the department? Stating the one agency and possible methods, talking to the community futures organization have a good set up, to deal with the communities and regions who have a better knowledge of that.

Although they are lending to them, it is quite low that some of the changes that could be made. Is he referring to something of this nature, or at least, using the starting point of this report that was done and going from there? Thank you.