Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe the department should spend a percentage of the time they spend promoting the Northwest Territories and promoting the kinds of programs and services the department has available to communities. I am pretty sure most of these communities do not know anything about some of these programs.
Let's talk about Community Futures and the NWT business development centres. You have the Akaitcho Business Development Centre in which you have the city of Yellowknife, N'dilo and Detah. You have the Thebacha Business Development Centre, which has Fort Smith, Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution. I see Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution never had any money coming out of that development centre and that development centre is placed in Fort Smith I believe. They have not done anything to promote business development in the communities. Maybe they have done it in Fort Smith but certainly not in Fort Resolution or in Lutselk'e. If you do not have resources associated with these positions or these offices, or these offices are not known to the people they are supposed to serve, how are they supposed to do their jobs? Economic development officers in every community, paid sufficiently by the government as comparable to what they pay individuals working for the departments, would be excellent in these communities so that they can take advantage of business opportunities. There is a lot of potential out there but we are not utilizing it.
I think the Minister has the gist of my concern and my suggestions, so I would like to get into the area of environment, Mr. Chairman. The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is a creation of the federal government through their negotiations with land claims. In the Northwest Territories, you have the Deh Cho, the Dogrib region and the Akaitcho, who do not have agreements, and this Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is enforced upon them. Specifically in the area of the Patterson sawmill application, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Board used a site in northern Alberta to do an assessment in the Pine Point area. They used the environmental assessment done by the proponent, Mr. Patterson, to do the environmental assessment. Is that the practice of the Mackenzie Valley? Is that acceptable to RWED, Mr. Chairman? And when is RWED going to complete its environmental base line studies in the Slave Geological Province? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.