Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wasn't planning on spending a lot of time on the Arctic Canada Trading Corporation issue, because I have a number of other issues that I want to address with the Minister under general comments. But the answers that the Minister is giving are creating a need for me to keep on pursuing this.

First of all, I take offence to any inference here that any members care more about what's going on in small communities than other places. I have stated on many occasions when I have talked about this issue either in the committee, with the Minister or with retailers, for that matter. I believe that there is a need for the government to play a role in terms of being a supplier of arts and crafts that are being created in the communities. I believe that that is a role that a company like this corporation has to play. I would say that it's a role that this government has not been fulfilling very well, and I don't know the detailed reasons of that. I could tell you that in my visits to local arts and crafts stores, they'll tell you they're dying for supplies. They're able and willing to sell more. They have lots to sell. They have aurora visitors in their stores, and if they could have security of supply of 100 of this and 1000 of that, they could sell that. They don't believe that the government or this corporation is doing enough to address that.

So I think that I'll be the one who would agree with the Minister, that that is a role that this corporation has to play. Instead, the Minister is somehow suggesting that I have my eyes blindfolded and I can't see the good work that this corporation is doing. I'm saying I agree with you, but it's not being done enough. Instead what this corporation is doing is getting into the retail market in a place like Yellowknife. They could do it where the retail marketers are not as prosperous or not as numerous as Yellowknife. For a corporation that's funded by the government with a very specific mandate to help local artisans to be faxing a promotional flyer at Christmastime saying at 15 percent discount you could get these goods, and to say that that's not retailing... I don't know who's being fooled here. Anybody with Economics 101 could understand that's retailing and that's interfering with the market, and that is not a role for this corporation to play. I thought that we addressed this issue and that the Minister had agreed with the problem. The last commitment that I thought I had was that this would be conveyed to the board, and that they would look at this issue and come back to it.

First of all, I needed to make that clear. I've said over and over again, Fort McPherson Canvas Shop or any other communities; any artist there who knows how to create products and needs help to get their products to the market like Yellowknife or to the South or anywhere, the government has to step in and do it. That's the role of this corporation. Their role is not to interfere with companies and retail businesses that are operating in Yellowknife. They should be there to help these people and those businesses get those products that are being produced. So I have to ask the Minister again why is it that this policy cannot be visited and revisited and amended if necessary to make it clear that the role of this corporation is to be the bridge between the artisans who make those artifacts and the businesses that sell them? It is not their business to engage in retail selling. Thank you.