Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. It is in fact a new program; new program dollars here, $375,000, and it will be divvied up among the regions so that operators can work on product development. We would like to see this increase. We think it is very important and a worthwhile initiative. I would agree that we aren't able to spend the kinds of dollars that other jurisdictions do. Other provinces use economic development agreement money at times to partner with the CTC, the Canadian Tourism Commission, and lever even further additional dollars. We don't have an EDA, we're hampered in that regard, but neither does the Yukon and they do spend more money on tourism that we do. Really it's a matter of priorities. But we recognize that we're getting a lot of good work out of the NWTAT -- I would acknowledge that -- and for relatively little money. I think we'd like to do as much as we can going forward in future budgets to recognize that and make sure we reward areas that have been successful with limited funding. Aside from the $375,000 in this regard in this budget, there isn't any additional money in that regard.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to use up my last minute to speak about fire suppression contract. I think the Minister remembers not too long ago, about a year ago, there was a huge debate in this House about the negotiated contract for fire suppression. At the time what I learned is it takes about three or four years of preparation to make sure that the next time around the process will be open to at least the NWT contractors, because of the fact that the terms of reference is very complicated and it takes two or three years to write them to make sure that they meet all the necessary requirements. So I would like to ask the Minister whether or not he's had a chance to address his mind to it, and what he plans to do to make sure he meets those timelines. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, the current contract expires in 2007-08. The Member is certainly right that we have to get the planning in place and make sure we signal our intention to go to a competitive process prior to that. It's my intention that for the land-based DC-4 aircraft contract that expires in October '07 and the CL-215 contract expiring in March of 2008, it's my intention we would go to competitive process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee, your time has expired. I'm going to move on to general comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to proceed by asking a few questions. I would like to go to page 3 of the Minister's opening statement. The Minister references proper closure and remediation actions, and if he could define on how he plans to do that. That's with regard to abandonment and contaminated mines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Certainly much of this responsibility is a federal one. Lands and resources are under federal control. These mines we're mining under their watch, and we've made a point to make sure that we continue to press the federal government to acknowledge its responsibility, acknowledge these liabilities and to clean them up. I was personally very encouraged to see in the last federal budget $575 million, I believe, earmarked for contaminated sites cleanup. We recognized at that point and had a lot of good discussion in this House about the need to make sure that we made enough noise to make sure that our priorities would be

addressed and would make it to the top of the heap. We're certainly paying very close attention to the upcoming federal budget to see if there will be additional monies earmarked for contaminated sites cleanup. Obviously $575 million is just scratching the surface with the number of contaminated sites across the country. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My next question will be on page 6. It was earlier referenced by another Member with regard to the $375,000 that will help ignite new and attractive products. Could he refer to some of the products as an example? He suggested that that $375,000 would be broken out to I believe I heard him say all regions, and I'm trying to understand what products he's referring to with regard to the tourism industry. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. I should clarify, I said that this was new program money and I meant it's new in this current year, 2003-04, and it is ongoing, 2004-05. Really the product development; as I've said, this is $375,000 that will be divvied up among regions and there are criteria that we've laid out. So in order to determine what proposals would be eligible to receive product development funds, the criteria and guidelines were established. We know that the funds would be aimed at existing licence tourism operators in the NWT to make the best use of this money. I think that's important. But also, we're allowing for new or emerging tourism operators or secondary tourism businesses to also access this funding. So it really is up to the creativity of the entrepreneur to put forward proposals for product development and we would fund them in that regard.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Referring to page 7 of the Minister's opening comments, if the Minister could elaborate when he refers in the last paragraph to lobbies against the proposal price subsidy for Alaska gas. Could he expand on what his department is doing when they refer to lobby, and if that's a financial commitment or if that's strictly a knowledge-based infrastructure, paperwork, et cetera? If he could expand our role as a lobbyer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

It has required the expenditure of funds over the past few years. Certainly we have been trying to get a sense of what Congress and Senate intended to do in their energy bill, and it has been through a few different iterations. I think the latest version is looking at a slimed down energy bill that wouldn't have the proposed floor price subsidy for Alaskan gas included. There are a number of other measures. It's still, at this point, up in the air. It's sort of uncertain as to what version of this bill will pass through the House, or if it will be sort of divvied up into one-off initiatives. But in any regard, we have had to pay for some intelligence on the ground so that we understand what Senate and Congress are proposing to do. But as you know, both the Canadian government and this government have been against the proposed floor price subsidy. We think that that is a distortion of the market and has no place in development of this nature. We do support, however, more conventional support tools such as loan guarantees and things of that nature.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may, just for a moment, expand a little further. To my knowledge, if I remember correctly, President Bush said that they would not disrupt the market. If I remember further correctly, when Ambassador Cellucci suggested the same thing, that the President would not influence the market. Do we have Intel that tells us otherwise, and that's why you continue to lobby this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. We've always recognized and the U.S. administration has always been fairly clear that they didn't support the floor price subsidy. Our concern has been more with the bill going through the Senate and the bill going through Congress. We also, I think, have to keep in mind that with future presidential elections, we can never know what future administrations will or won't support. So we felt that there was certainly a necessity to keep up the pressure in this regard. We've heard the Premier talk at length about his concerns, should a subsidized Alaska gas project go ahead and what that would mean to the gas market. So we do feel there's a need to make sure we understand what's happening in the United States. The lower 48 states really constitute the major market for our gas in the Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if I could draw the Minister's attention to page 9, the first three words, "government certification program." That's with regard to our jewellery and our diamonds. Is that program recognized across Canada? I know it is being noted as one of a kind in the world. Is it being recognized anywhere outside of the Northwest Territories?