Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think related to this area and also to references that the Minister made in his opening comments and in the goals of the department is a phrase that he uses called "reference to the traditional economy." Not to be rhetorical, Mr. Chairman, I think it is something I would have a certain definition of, which may well be different from what other Members have or indeed that of a department. Could we get a description or an inventory from the point of the view of the department of what is the traditional economy? Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the core to the traditional economy is the fur industry, but also and of more value to a lot of people is the traditional hunting that people take part in and the support we provide there. We provide support in a number of areas and I mentioned yesterday the support through the Development Corporation on the fur industry. We do have a pretty good program of support to trappers, $334,000 for the Fur Pricing Program. We have $473,000 for the Community Harvester Assistance Program. That includes fur, but it is broader. There is $244,000 in this budget for the Western Harvesters' Support Program. That is a program whereby about $10.6 million has been allocated out to communities for harvesting activities and they control that now.

In addition to that, we provide support to wildlife boards and committees at $336,000. Now while it is not necessarily a traditional economy, we also provide $395,000 to commercial fishermen. Then on the arts and crafts side, there is considerable support, particularly through the Development Corporation.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we have the fur side and trappers' assistance and hunters. I might take some liberty and put in some finished products, garments and things. Hunting, harvesting, commercial fishing, arts and crafts; so we are talking about quite a basket of what we would consider the economy up here is also the traditional economy.

Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks. I wanted to move onto another area under the minerals, oil and gas area. Over the last few years, I believe the territorial government has made a contribution to gold exploration projects in the Yellowknife gold belt to help with mapping, exploration, with the idea to see if there could be continued life or perhaps new life breathed into the gold industry here. I wanted to ask, are we still continuing with a contribution to that program? I believe it was called EXTECH. What kind of results are we getting out of that? Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

I will ask Mr. McLeod to deal with the detail on that one. Thank you.

Mr. Bob McLeod.

Mr. Braden.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Can the department demonstrate any results or any information that was gleaned from this investment? Are we able to show that we helped extend the life of the mine, we opened up some new areas or opportunities? What's the feedback or return on this investment? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, it is difficult to tell exactly how much difference our contribution made, but the information I have from Con Mine is that by having done some exploration deeper, they have come up with some richer ore and therefore the life of the mine continues to be extended, but to put measures on exactly what our dollars did, it is impossible.

Mr. Braden.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that and I understand you cannot nail this thing down to the fine point. This is something I have been repeating with just about every department is to try to get some reporting back, some documentation back that says here is what we got for our money, here is the way to measure the value of this investment. I would like to see more of this kind of thing so that we can do a better job of holding Ministers accountable, but also as we make our decisions here, the people out there who are every once in a while voting for us will have some measurement of just the accountability we can bring to the table too.

I would like to turn now to the area of the tourism industry and following on what my colleague Mr. Roland was asking about in the area of staffing. The Minister has indicated already that our tourism shop is a pretty small one. Right now, it is even further disadvantaged because there are, from the last report I had, at least three or four vacancies out of six positions in there. As Mr. Roland indicated, I think a really good opportunity or potential opportunity is here, Mr. Chairman, to build some linkages, some bridges, some new economies with industry itself and see potentially if some of the staff, because they are working so intimately on the same work and with the same objectives, could combine their work spaces, their objectives, their economies of scale.

My question is, at this point, when we are recruiting for new talent in the tourism marketing and development area, what is the realm of the department to explore that kind of new relationship with the industry? Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, as I said before, we now have to rethink our whole tourism strategy and what we can afford to do and not do. We do have responsibilities within the department that we have to maintain. I have to keep that in mind.

I do not want to make a knee-jerk decision just because we have three vacancies to suddenly start dismantling the department. I think we should think this through carefully with the tourism association. I agree with the need to work more closely together, and that certainly has always been our objective. If there is a way of doing it, we would be receptive to that. I really have to take some time here and just look at where we are heading with tourism and with the strategy that was worked out, which will obviously have to be changed.

If there is a way of doing it, we will look at it. The positions that are vacant right now are the director's position and the coordinator of marketing services. If there is a way of working out marketing, for example, maybe there is some room there. The other person was an executive assistant level position, and that is being filled, I understand. There is really only the two. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to recognize the lady in the gallery. Thank you for coming and observing what is happening in the House here. Next on the list I have Mr. Nitah, Mr. Dent, and Mr. Roland. Mr. Nitah.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I think that is a beautiful part of the Northwest Territories and a territory that has a lot of tourism potential, in my view. We do need trained people to act as tourism guides, fishing guides and so on. I hope we can find a way to provide training, first of all, so that we have people who deliver a good product when tourists come.

Second is, within the resources we have available, I would like to work with Mr. Nitah and others on looking at what we can plan to do in that area. It is an area that I think a lot of tourists would be interested in being there. I think there is a good future for people from the area in the tourism industry. Thank you.