Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thought you had somebody else on your list, but there are a few other areas I just want to touch on. I would just like to mention a few things that jump out at me on page 7. When we talk about support for Mackenzie gas projects and the pipeline, I see here that you identify support to the APG of $250,000 for administrative expenses for the GNWT. You also mention in here that this support will continue for the next six years. That jumps out at me because we, across government, for many projects whether it be in Health and Social Services or Education, in trying to get a commitment from government for long-term funding, it's very hard to get any kind of a funding arrangement for more than one or two years. Here we have this money for the next six years. I am wondering exactly what this money is for and what kind of an accounting process is there for this money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a contribution to the APG to help them resource the work that they are undertaking. Yes, it is a level of support that we are proposing continue for a number of years. I think it's important to provide the kind of stability and certainty that we think is needed in order to get this business deal off the ground. We think there will be a monumental return on the investment if aboriginal groups and northerners are able to take advantage of this pipeline, not only through the typical employment and business opportunities that we've seen in the past, but this shift to actual aboriginal ownership is one that we see makes a lot of sense and we think it's a model that is groundbreaking and will be duplicated in future and allows us to move into entirely new territory. I think it's very exciting. I think the fact that we've expressed our commitment to try to get this money for the next six years, indicates and is a signal that we place this pipeline development and Mackenzie Valley development in general as one of the highest priorities of this government. We really think the impact for people in that area who haven't had the benefit up and down that pipeline of economic development that we have been more fortunate in the North Slave with mining, we think there are real benefits to those areas and want to do whatever we can to support that.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wouldn't want the Minister to get the impression that I don't think the APG is a good project. I think it is critical to get the whole project going as far as running the pipeline. We just heard in the diamond industry how government supported major industry getting developed in the diamond industry, but here it seems to be a totally different approach. Rather than securing loans with loan guarantees, now it's strictly a contribution. We are talking fairly good money here. We are talking $15 million over six years. If I had another question it would be on this whole page, the work the APG is doing as far as getting ownership in a pipeline and preparing for a pipeline, and then the contribution for funding for aboriginal organizations of $360,000 a year, and the same with the private sector partnership of $500,000 for on-the-job training. Do these funding pots not tie in somewhat supporting somewhat the same groups?

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Certainly it's a possibility in certain circumstances that groups are able to access more than one pot of money, but the private sector partnership fund is something that is targeted at industry for on-the-job training in the oil and natural gas industry and also targeted at mining, tourism and construction, and that is different than funding to the APG and different than the $360,000 that has been earmarked for aboriginal organizations to help build capacity. I think this funding is treated the same way as other contribution funding, and other organizations have to demonstrate that they are spending the money in the manner that has been laid out in their proposal. For instance, industry, through the private sector partnership fund, will have to demonstrate the job creation or the training that they are delivering, and there is an accounting of that back to the department. Obviously it's public money and we want to ensure that it is spent on these initiatives. That's certainly very important and we recognize that. We think these are pieces of our overall strategy and this overall strategy is going to be more clearly fleshed out and is going to have more strategic direction as we sit down with Regular Members and my Cabinet colleagues to set up this new committee that will provide this strategic direction in this regard. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am certainly glad to see in the Minister's opening remarks that he makes reference to the manufacturing industry and that he brings forward the growth in manufacturing export. I certainly would encourage the Minister and his department to continue looking at this area of development and growth in the Northwest Territories because it holds youth potential. I would just encourage him to continue that.

I just wanted to make one comment regarding the Department of Education, Culture and Education and the fact that you have published their response to the Arts Strategy Advisory Panel report. Then you go on to say both departments will carry out immediate initiatives and conclude a more comprehensive strategy. I am just wondering if I could get more information on that. Are we going to head into another strategy to implement what the panel has reported? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Delorey. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intent is not to do another strategy. We have the strategy. Now we are talking at this point about a detailed work plan and our department is sitting down with ECE to work on this detailed work plan, and I believe we will have that information and be able to come back to committee and lay that out for you. At that point, we can get your feedback and thoughts and comments on the work plan as it's proposed.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was listening to the deliberations and what is not what was in the opening statement, was reference to an economic development agreement with the federal government. Because in my riding, we are talking some pretty significant capital investments and some of the initiatives that they are talking about like the desire to get into regional airlines, setting up huge joint venture companies in preparation for the pipeline development. I am just wondering if the Minister can just give me a brief update as to our lobby efforts in getting an EDA or striving towards an EDA for the North. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is correct in that we haven't had an economic development agreement since 1996. Other jurisdictions, Atlantic Canada and also the western economic diversification program, do have EDAs and certainly we feel that we have been short-changed in this regard and have been making that point to the federal government. Our predecessors were making that point. We continue to make the point.

Last week, I sat down with the Parliamentary Secretary to the DIAND Minister, Larry Bagnell. I had a chance to meet with him to discuss an EDA. I know that many of you saw the signalling in the Throne speech of this northern strategy. We had a good chance to talk about the northern strategy. My feeling was this should be comprised of not only an EDA, but certainly an EDA should be involved. He indicated to me that he is touring our territory and also Nunavut and Yukon in order to build up a knowledge base and understanding on what our needs are. We made sure he was able to be involved in a meeting with a coalition of business people here locally while he was here to understand our challenges, to understand the need for infrastructure and to hear the message not only from our government, but from our industry partners, from our small business partners, that we do need an EDA. Certainly we expect that by this summer, after he's done the bulk of his work and gone around and surveyed various stakeholders, that he will be able to come forward and put something concrete forward that would look at an EDA for the North, not just the Northwest Territories, but Yukon and Nunavut as well. We hope that it's significant. We hope that it's substantial. We hope there is maximum flexibility for that money. We don't want something that's too rigid that really ties our hands and doesn't allow us to flow money where we think it's most needed. Certainly we hope there aren't added administrative mechanisms that come part and parcel with this money, because the last thing we need is more administrative overhead when we are trying to flow more money into communities and make sure more money hits the ground. We've made those points to the Minister. We will continue to make those points to the Minister. I am optimistic and hopeful that we will see an EDA. I think it's a long time coming.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. If there are no further general comments, I would like to see if the committee would like to proceed to the detail of the estimates.

Okay. We are on page 11-7 of the estimates. We are going to defer this until later. Page 11-9 is the corporate management, operations expense, total operations expense, $15.925 million. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to corporate management, I would like to ask a couple of pertinent questions to the Minister. It's with regard to the pursuit of excellence. I wanted to raise a point on the industrial initiatives and see if the Minister would respond and give us some indication of what he plans to do and implement in terms of strategy planning as it is articulated through the activity description. Could the Minister reply to that question?

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The industrial initiatives portion of this program comprises $1.49 million this year and that is to allow us to work with our partners to set up primarily socioeconomic agreements and then monitor them going forward to ensure that we are getting the benefits from development that we believe we should be getting. It's very important obviously to not only set up these agreements, but to then monitor them on an ongoing basis. That is what this money is for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My second question then it to ask the Minister if he would consider rephrasing it to reflect a covenant, which is a legally binding agreement versus a socioeconomic agreement that really just spells out some of the commitments that the producer would afford the Northwest Territories. I am just wondering if you would look at a covenant rather than a socioeconomic agreement. Would he consider that?