Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last weekend in Fort Smith, the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce held their annual meeting. They have elected a full slate for the executive. The president is Mr. Jim Bassingwaithe; vice-president is Lou Sebert; secretary treasurer is Rick James; the directors are Nick Kaeser, Chief Fred Daniels, Ibe Kristensen, Paul Campbell, Brad Bourke, Clayton Bourke, Michael Salvisberg and Paul Clark.

Mr. Speaker, like every other community, we need a strong business community. We need a thriving economy. We need an economy that is not totally dependent on government. The chamber that has been elected, the executive, has a job ahead of them. They have to work closely with the political leadership of the community and of the Northwest Territories to move ahead on many of the initiatives that are out there before us.

Mr. Speaker, we have on the horizon in our community the potential of hydro development. We have one land claim settlement that has just been signed last year and two more that will hopefully be signed in the coming months and years, which will bring a tremendous pool of capital to our community. We have a tourism market that is just starting to develop with the Japanese tourists, and in the summer with the Europeans.

We have, of course, some capital projects of interest. We have the paving of Highway No. 5. We have the seniors' housing project that is slated to go ahead in the next 18 months or so that will hopefully bring much-needed housing to the community, along with the demolition of the old hospital. There is a relocation of the fire centre which will finally move a GNWT major program out of federally leased office space into owned-in-the-North office space, and also free up office space for the federal government to finally move some other positions to Fort Smith. We are looking at the potential of a new pool in our community.

Mr. Speaker, very clearly, it is very important that we have a strong chamber. I would like to congratulate all of those who put their names forward and all of those who were elected. I look forward to working with the chamber and the rest of the community leadership to realize a lot of the potential projects I just outlined through this House today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause