Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, realizing that we only have the time frame that is allotted to this 14th Assembly, which is two more years before we go to the polls, is that our responsibility is within that two years. What happens with a pipeline or what happens in other areas would not happen within that time frame.
I would like to ask the Minister, has he or his department tried to find ways, knowing that the federal government is now receiving royalty payments from the diamond mines and what not, if there is a possibility of instead of having to wait for the conclusion of negotiations for the Northern Accord, that we can possibly look at a percentage distribution of that up-front now, knowing it will happen later on?
If there is a possibility or a consideration with the Minister of Finance, knowing we are negotiating a new formula financing agreement, but also knowing that these new revenues, which were not part of the previous financial agreements or arrangements, and seeing if we could get a tax break or allowed to keep more of the resources, rather than having to send 80 percent of the capital corporate taxes or taxes back to Ottawa? Any revenues that are generated, if we could keep a bigger percentage of it, realizing that we are going through some difficult times and that we will need those additional resources to get us through.
I think instead of asking for 100 percent of the resources, we are asking for 20 or 15 percent that we are allowed to hold back, instead of having to give 80 percent back to the government. We will let them take 75 and we keep 25 or something to that arrangement.
Is the Minister willing to look at something like that with the Minister of Finance to see if there are those types of alternatives that we can work on over the next two years?