The committee was informed that the government would be bringing forth decision papers shortly with regard to the reorganization of energy initiatives. The committee is looking forward to reviewing these decision papers and offering comments on the issue.

The committee is aware that four departments are currently funding the Arctic Energy Alliance. The department offered to provide a report done last year reviewing the Alliance's effectiveness in providing energy-saving programs. The committee would like to be assured that energy initiatives are not being duplicated throughout the NWT or the government. Oil and Gas and Diamonds Directorates

With considerable oil and gas development being proposed for the NWT the committee asked if there may be a need to have a specific Oil and Gas Directorate, focused on assisting the communities as they negotiate and develop proposals to work with large international oil and gas companies.

The committee also suggested that the department should be actively investigating the possibility of developing value-added products for oil and gas. The department committed to doing that.

The committee noted that the focus of the Diamond Directorate appeared to be on the marketing of Arctic diamonds. The committee felt that marketing should be left to the individual companies and that the GNWT's focus should be on training and providing access to employment for northern residents in the diamond industry.

A member of the committee suggested that while the cutting and polishing of diamonds is an important sector, the large bulk of wealth from the diamond industry as a whole is in the brokerage area of trading rough diamonds. The committee noted that the government does not currently have access to rough diamonds from the NWT diamond mines. As a result, the committee suggested that the government may wish to pursue this avenue of discussions with any future diamond mine development.