Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since the Minister has brought up this particular dealer, I understand that there was a contract signed where this person or this business -- if that is a person, it's the same person and I have no way of knowing at the moment -- but whatever the deal that this person or some party that the corporation has signed a contract with, apparently it was a sole distributorship contract where only the party that signed that contract was allowed to market and distribute furs from the Northwest Territories. I want to confirm with the Minister whether there was a contract like that. If we don't have that contract any more, did we have to pay a penalty to get out of that contract?

Thank you. Ms. Lee. The Chair will recognize Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to look at some of the smaller parts of this department, at least in terms of its relationship to our economy. The oil and gas and minerals side is enormous. Our economy is unfolding or pivoting on those resources. For the time being, though, they are, from a regulatory and a developmental point of view, largely out of our hands.

But what we do have almost absolute control of, Mr. Chairman, are the renewable kinds of resources and industries: tourism, forestry, furs, and fisheries, and arts and crafts, as we've just been debating. What we're reminded of once in a while, or we should be reminding ourselves once in a while, Mr. Chairman, is that unlike most other parts of Canada, the NWT does not have a federal investment program going for it to assist especially these aspects of our economy. They are especially important, Mr. Chairman, when you recognize that a diverse economy is a healthy one. I sometimes get a little concerned that so much of our economy and our values and things, the housing market and stuff that we see developing across the NWT is based on a surge in diamond and oil and gas activity. I'd really like to see more diversity. But we are handicapped, badly handicapped by the absence of this kind of agreement. I think the EDA kind of assistance programs with Ottawa that we're familiar with expired in 1996. So here we are almost seven years now without the advantage that something that the rest of Canada has had out there at their doorstep.

I guess that's enough of a preamble. I don't think I need to explain much more of where I'm going. I would like to ask the Minister what efforts does the department or the government foresee in the coming year that will help deliver something like a federal investment program for the NWT?

Well, I wish Mr. Rock was here, because I'd really like to talk to him on this assumption; this terrible mistaken assumption he has that we're getting a fair deal along with the rest of Canada is very wrong. So what are we doing about it? I guess I would repeat my question, Mr. Chairman. What are we doing to bring this to Ottawa's attention? Where is, for instance, the Department of Northern Affairs, which likes to get in our way whenever we want to try to do something for ourselves but isn't out there with very much in the way of real help on this kind of thing. They've really let us down. What are we doing about it?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So just to be clear, and I'm quite familiar with the NRRDS strategy, with the work that the private sector has also put into this, the Northern Business Coalition; a tremendous show of collaboration, Mr. Chairman, by this government and by the private sector. But what I'd like to confirm, is there on a table anywhere in Ottawa a live proposal that we're pursuing. Is there anything active right now?

Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if one of our problems in this area, as I think we've seen in other efforts to get Ottawa on side, is that we really don't have the ability to focus on any given department or Minister, because of the relationship that we have with Northern Affairs. It almost seems to be a constant trail for play-off in Ottawa. We go down to see one department and they say well, you have to go and get Bob Nault to come with you and hold your hand. Then we go to Bob Nault and he says well, we're going to have to go over to this department and get that Minister and see what he says. So it's pretty easy, perhaps, to get shunted off to the sidelines. From the Minister's point of view, is that one of our real handicaps? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make some comments on the Minister's opening remarks, in some areas more than others. As I mentioned in my reply to the budget as well, I talked about the lack of even a mention in the budget about agriculture in the Northwest Territories. I do have quite a number of questions that I want to ask on agriculture. But before I get into that area -- and that might not be until tomorrow, Mr. Chairman -- I wanted to just bring up the waste recovery and reduction act the department is planning on introducing. I would like to know, Mr. Chairman, where they are with this recovery act. I know they are planning on introducing this in June. Is there a pretty good assurance that that will come in in June? One thing I had brought up to the department some time ago is the fact that Hay River is involved in a recovery program with a waste recovery outfit from the South, Hazco. I had suggested that the department talk to the town of Hay River officials to see if there were any things they could combine efforts in to promote and tie in the waste reduction and recovery in the Territories along with the project they have going on there. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me if his department has done any consultation with Hay River, and if it's pretty certain that this legislation will come through in June. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.