Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some years ago this government took measures to ensure that the work necessary to have the water bombers and land-based fire fighting operations be contracted to northern businesses, for the benefit of northern businesses that would hire northern people and base their operations here in the North. That was an expensive exercise that some of us were involved in, and we believe that after a significant amount of investment the contractor, Buffalo Airways, has done a very good job, in the view of this government, and has invested a significant amount of money, time and energy to carry out that responsibility in the contract arrangement with this government.

The contract requires certain types of work to be done, certain facilities to be available and certain lease arrangements to be made, including with the federal government. These are not arrangements and circumstances that come about easily, and are not readily available to just anyone. In our view, we felt that as an executive there were some compelling reasons why we should consider, in reviewing the good performance of the contractor, in this case to extend. We felt that the benefits ensured evident ongoing benefits to the North of the initial arrangements we made were clear and substantial, and felt it warranted giving the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development a mandate to negotiate to see if the current provisions could be negotiated to the satisfaction of both parties. This is currently what we are doing. Thank you.