Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was not sure from the activity description because I was not on GED and did not have a chance to find this out earlier, but does the process of the revision of the Wildlife Act fall under this activity or under resource management and economic development?

Mr. Chairman, I will bring my questions up under that activity then, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I was wondering if we can find out from the Minister why the Maximizing Northern Employment contribution is going down by $500,000.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would agree with the Minister that I think Maximizing Northern Employment initiative is an important one. I think it is one that we should be emphasizing. I must express my displeasure at seeing the amount dropped here.

What really leads to the concern is if you look at the total grants and contributions under this activity we have gone from $78 million in last year's main estimates to $1.9 million in this year's main estimates so there has been a huge increase in grants and contributions, but we are seeing a significant reduction in the amount between what was actually spent this year and what is proposed to be spent next year in this area. We are seeing a huge change in emphasis, we are putting a lot more money into new projects, it would appear, next year as compared to this year. I am having trouble understanding how that does not represent a shift in priorities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand that I said $78 million was in the main estimates last year. In fact it was only $78,000. So we had $78,000 in last year's main estimates. In the course of the year we approved $1.3 million in supplementaries, $1 million of that for Maximizing Northern Employment and $300,000 for the Mackenzie Valley development contributions. We are asked to approve a significant increase over that $1.3 million to $1.9 million and yet we are seeing a decrease in Maximizing Northern Employment.

The Minister just said that we need to get ready for oil and gas development. I agree with him 100 percent, but I think that we have to make sure that our residents in those areas who are going to be impacted by oil and gas development in particular are ready to take advantage of those opportunities. That is what I understood the Maximizing Northern Employment program to be. So why would we not keep the money in that program if that was the goal here?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to hear the Minister say he will look at budget adjustments. I had hoped that you would find areas within your department's budget to increase the funding to Maximizing Northern Employment. I would think this is an important area to make sure we have adequate funding in. I guess really the question comes down to one of priorities and have we picked the right priorities for where we are putting our money?

Not having been on the committee that reviewed the budget in detail, I guess I am right now questioning whether or not this was a good move. I am really hoping that, although I do not have the background that others might in this department, I am hoping that we will find some way to bring that money back and not through supplementary. I think we should first of all look within.

I would like to also say that we seem to have made a dramatic shift too, going from nothing in last year's main estimates to over a million dollars for Mackenzie Valley contributions. The description here says that it is related to the Non-Renewable Resources Development Strategy.

I had understood that the NRRDS strategy was a strategy that we had tabled with the federal government, demonstrating to them how there would be a significant payback for Canada if they were to invest in helping us be better prepared for development in the North. The fact that we have now started to pay for it, does that mean that we have given up on getting the federal monies? Have we basically lost and we are saying now that we are going to have to do it on our own?

If so, what sort of strategies are we funding on an ongoing basis, or putting new funding into with this $1million that we are looking at here? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.