Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So we can strike another $10 million off our borrowing capacity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Minister Handley.

Mr. Chairman, it is reported as a contingent liability. So if we had to make good on it and we could not collect it from anywhere, then it becomes a liability. But until then it is categorized as a contingent liability, so it is not part of our net debt.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Another aspect of this same line of questioning. I do not think there is any doubt that the introduction and growth of this new industry to the North has been helped by the government's guarantee for companies starting up. But I do recall some of the discussion related to why we are doing this in the first place was because Canadian banking and financial institutions were really quite unfamiliar with the diamond industry and were unwilling to take on this kind of a risk because of that unfamiliarity. It is my understanding that they were saying, well, we need to watch how this develops, we need to build our own expertise and develop our own risk management plan. What I wanted to ask about was whether the Minister is seeing any change or progress in the expertise and the ability of the Canadian banking system to finance this kind of thing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Handley.

Mr. Chairman, yes, there has been and is a change happening gradually. That is why our total loan guarantee is only at $8 million. Some of the more recent companies, bigger companies that are coming north either are coming with more cash of their own to put into the business or else have arrangements with diamond banks elsewhere. So we are seeing some changes. In terms of the Canadian banks being any more willing to give the loans and so on on rough diamonds, no, there has not been a noticeable change yet from Canadian chartered banks.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Braden.

Mr. Chairman, I am wondering if this is something that we are working on. Are we shooting for this? I guess it seems an industry as wealthy and really as stable as the diamond industry should be able to look after itself in this vein. As I have said, I support the function of government in introducing it, but is this something that we could look forward to someday getting out of without putting taxpayers' money at risk and seeing it handled entirely within the entrepreneurial world? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Handley.

Mr. Chairman, as Mr. Braden mentioned earlier, the loan guarantees and support provided by our government has certainly been beneficial in terms of creating a diamond polishing industry in the Northwest Territories. So it has made that industry possible. I think without it we would not see it. The diamond secondary industry is not a big industry in Canada yet, so with our chartered banks in Canada where the decisions are made in Toronto and so on this is not something that attracts their attention. I think eventually it may happen or else we will see diamond banks moving into Canada. At this point, no, there is not a lot of interest by Canadian banks. It has been some time since I had discussions, but I have had discussions with representatives of banks about loan guarantees in the rough diamond area and they just do not know enough about the business. I expect that over the longer term we will see it happening, but not in the immediate future.

Thank you, Minister Handley. General comments. Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Minister Handley.

Mr. Chairman, the Financial Management Board Secretariat does not have any arrangements with Nunavut, so there are no service charges paid by this or earned by this department with Nunavut.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Lafferty. General comments.

Detail. We are on page 2-37, directorate, operations. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under directorate, it is written down under the area of self-government where the Financial Management Board Secretariat is working with Aboriginal Affairs and provides advice to them. I would like to know from the Minister in that area, when it comes to the self-government discussions and in an area that was highlighted in our report about regional reorganization, what kind of advice does the directorate give other departments? We have heard that there is no government-wide regional reorganization going on, but the numbers show that in fact some departments have been moving already in that area. So is this a one-off sort of thing? One department comes in, Financial Management Board Secretariat gives its advice and what impacts are there in the fact of our financial resources? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Minister Handley.

Mr. Chairman, in terms of any organization to accommodate self-governments and so on, this department does not provide any advice to the other departments in our government. Our government does not have a position on this. The only advice we would provide through the Financial Management Board Secretariat would be on the financial implications of any self-government agreements or negotiations that are going on.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So who would monitor the potential impacts of some of the decisions being made by the departments when it comes specifically to realigning themselves on the basis of self-government discussions that are going on? Thank you.