Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in his opening remarks, the Minister talked about the unprecedented level of economic growth during the past few years. I know this government spent a lot of dollars, a lot of time, a lot of human resources on seeing that those opportunities go to Northerners. I'd like to ask the Minister, in the area of economic development, how many staff members does he have and what's the budget?

Right now we have a total staff of 453, with a total budget of $85 million. That whole department is geared, in one form or another, to economic development, whether it's in wildlife or tourism or any of those sectors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I thought we were still on general comments. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can the Minister give us an indication of what those 400 people, including that big budget, is doing in promoting economic development in the Northwest Territories? What kinds of programs? Just give us a general idea. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We're doing a lot of work in the area of business development. There are all kinds of different sectors out there, and we work in that area giving out loans through the business loan fund to the Business Development Corporation. Through the investment and economic analysis, we also provide that. We have wildlife programs and fisheries activities. There's a sector on minerals, oil and gas, that is more or less keeping an eye on what's going on in the oil and gas area and keeping an eye on the natural gas pipeline that has been in the works for a few years. We have a diamond project and we have some people working in that area to make sure that our framework policy is adhered to, and we monitor the manufacturing of diamonds in the North. We have a sector in parks and tourism. We have a lot of different parks throughout the North. We build them, we maintain them and we operate them.

In the forest management area there's the whole area of forest development. Fire suppression is in there, including pre-suppression and the whole management of the forest management area.

We also have environmental protection services where we have program management. We look at energy management, as well, and there's an environmental protection aspect of this program. All these different programs are more or less out in the regions and communities, and we have a corporate management that more or less looks after the policy and the legislation and communication. It's just like corporate services of running this huge department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, obviously the department is very well run on the economic base of the Northwest Territories. I'll just mention offhand the many programs and services that the department provides. I'd like to ask of the 400 people who are working for that department, how many are there at the ground level in communities such as Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution that help deliver those programs and services, that help the communities to understand those programs and services so they can take advantage of it. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, in the regions we have regional operations and usually have a superintendent who is responsible for providing the programs and services in the regions. The two communities the honourable Member mentioned -- Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution -- fall under the South Slave region. They run the programs, and we want to make sure that they do what they're supposed to through the different officers that we have on the ground in the communities. We have wildlife officers, we have economic development officers that if they're not there, they're responsible for the community. In some cases we fund the band for economic development officer positions. This is a method that the region normally runs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister to provide information on what the regional office in Fort Smith has ever done for the communities of Lutselk'e and Fort Resolution. With the many opportunities in the economic area, how can the Minister expect one individual to manage all the opportunities? Communities are losing out on a lot of opportunities because this is only a one-man show. The Minister has 400 people and $200 million and some in this department to deliver these programs, but the communities can't take advantage of it because they don't have the human resources to understand, let alone take advantage of all these programs and services. We know through harmonization, Mr. Chairman, that the Minister responsible for the bingo police is introducing programs and services that are going to encourage people to get out of income support, and we're not providing them with an option in those communities. What is this department doing to provide an option for people in our communities to get out of income support? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, our role as a government is hopefully not to go into communities and create initiatives for people. We work with the communities. If they create economic development corporations or community corporations or individual companies, then we work with them to try to get the necessary funding in place to pursue the different economic development initiatives that are there. We work with the bands and we work with different community councils. We try to see how we can help them develop economically in their communities. So our task is mainly to have the programs and services that are there available, and in communities that are in the position to utilize those programs and services we work with them to see how we can have these programs available and how we can utilize these programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, once again, this department has 400 employees to understand these programs and services. How can the Minister expect one individual that they fund in the communities to understand all these programs and services and take advantage of them? Don't you think that the millions of dollars that we're spending promoting these business activities and economic opportunities, that it would be a wise business investment to put some people in the communities so they can help deliver the programs and services and help the communities take advantage of their businesses and economic opportunities? Instead of just having one person who is overworked, over-utilized, where we have a bureaucracy that's just top heavy and not looking at the delivery mechanism. We see what we put in. What comes out of it? We know the input. What's the outcome, Mr. Chairman? What's the outcome?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the Northwest Territories it's a growing economy. We have unprecedented economic growth, and obviously we are not prepared. The word and the discussion that we have with different aboriginal governments is that there's lack of capacity. There is need to build capacity in communities. This is an area where we, as a government, provide programs through MNE -- the maximizing northern employment initiatives. We do a number of different programs out there to try to develop the expertise in the communities, although there are overwhelming opportunities out there in some communities and in some communities they don't have that opportunity. However, our task in these communities is to provide the programs and services. We have a number of people; a couple of people, I think, in Lutselk'e. We have two contract crews and fire crews. We also have regular visits by the regional staff. I think there is good communication with the chief and band of Lutselk'e to see any way we can help. Again, we work with the community governments to identify if they need additional resources to do the different things that they want to do. I think that's what we've been doing. If we can do it more efficiently, then I would like to hear it and pass it on to the department, and perhaps we could do a lot better than what we have. But our intention here is to continue to work with the regions, and keep instructing the regions to respond to what the community needs are and what the communities are asking them to do. Thank you.