Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through this program and other cost-shared agreements with the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, we are continuing with the Mackenzie Valley winter road bridges program. All in all, the program includes the installation of 22 permanent bridges over water crossings and great improvements to the winter road itself.

Transportation continues to work with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation in a public/private partnership towards the construction of the first highway bridge over the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. The proponent of this project is presently engaged in securing the required regulatory approvals. Public hearings before the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board are scheduled to begin on Thursday, October 21st. The current construction schedule anticipates the opening of the Deh Cho Bridge to traffic in late 2006.

With a growing, buoyant economy it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that businesses have access to the capital required to grow and produce jobs and economic benefits. During the current session, the Minister of RWED, the Honourable Brendan Bell, will introduce a new Business Development and Investment Corporation Act. The new act will consolidate GNWT business assistance programming under a business development and investment corporation that will provide the necessary focus and flexibility to meet existing and future business needs in the territory.

Mr. Speaker, resource development, particularly diamonds and gas, continues to be the engine that drives the Northwest Territories economy. Since the conclusion of the last Legislative Assembly, we have successfully negotiated a comprehensive environmental agreement and socioeconomic agreement with de Beers regarding the development of their proposed Snap Lake mine. These agreements help ensure that the environment is protected and that northern resources are developed in a manner that provides meaningful, long-term benefits to northerners.

At the national level, we have been working with our provincial and territorial colleagues to develop an action plan for the National Diamond Strategy. The action plan focuses on three fundamental issues that must be taken into account if the diamond industry in Canada is to be developed in a sustainable way: the supply of Canadian-sourced diamonds, the demand for diamonds processed in Canada and the regulation of the markets. The importance of the Mackenzie gas project to the long-term strategic interests of the Northwest Territories and the socioeconomic benefits of our people in the communities cannot be overstated. The Government of the Northwest Territories remains fully committed to this project, to the joint panel process established to review it, and into ensuring northerners fully benefit from this development.

We are encouraged by the announcement last week that the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group have filed the environmental impact statement and detailed federal applications for the Mackenzie gas project. This filing represents major progress towards the construction of the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline and associated gas field facilities in the Mackenzie Delta of the Northwest Territories. Much of the credit for the progress we have made to date must go to Fred Carmichael and Nellie Cournoyea from the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, and the former president of Imperial Oil Ltd, K.C. Williams.

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Mr. Speaker, there has been a great deal of coverage in the media over the past several weeks and months about some of the possible impediments to this development; issues concerning aboriginal rights, the regulatory regime and a need to ensure our natural environment is protected. These issues are of real significance. We recognize the challenge this project presents to our natural environment, to traditional economies and the traditional culture of the peoples of the Northwest Territories, and we are committed to working with the leadership in the Northwest Territories and interested groups to find solutions. We also believe that these issues must be considered in tandem with long-term interests of the Northwest Territories.

One of the most important of these long-term interests is an equitable division of the revenues among the federal government and northern governments, both the GNWT and aboriginal governments, and it is a critical missing link as we move closer to the devolvement of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. It is for this reason that we have proposed to the federal government that we consider an interim arrangement on revenue sharing that allows northern governments to receive a benefit immediately from these developments.