Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of vehicles that are used to monitor the commitments that have been made, not all of them are used by this government specifically. The benefit and access agreements are monitored by the aboriginal groups that have negotiated those. I believe there are, although we are not privy to this, reporting mechanisms. We have spoken earlier of the annual report and the reporting that the producers do in that regard.
If somebody is hired as a northern hire and they move south permanently, they no longer qualify as a northern hire and cannot be calculated and tabulated as a northern hire. That would affect the numbers that the mines report on. We all are aware of stories of people who have chosen to move south and that is unfortunate. We need to do whatever we can to try to encourage people to stay in the North and that includes ensuring that there is adequate housing and other things like this.
I have had a chance to tour both mines a number of times now, and I don't know if the Member has had that chance. I would be amazed -- if he gets a chance to tour the mines, he certainly should do that -- if he doesn't recognize at least 100 people at these mines. You tour the mines and you go through there and it's our friends and colleagues and relatives throughout the Northwest Territories. You will recognize many, many of these people.
The question about whether or not we audit the reporting, the annual reports; we don't really have the capability to do that, that wasn't envisioned in the socioeconomic agreement. We do work with the information that the mines provide us and that forms the basis of our conclusions as to whether or not the targets are being met.
In the case of Diavik, there is the advisory board that has been set up to work with Diavik to ensure that there is monitoring in a whole range of areas, including some of the socioeconomic areas and including employment targets. That mechanism is in place and I believe there is a similar mechanism proposed for the future Snap Lake mine as well. We are working with the structures that we have and I believe we are improving as we go in each subsequent development. I think we've learned from the BHP Billiton project and we have also learned from the Diavik project and I believe we are simply improving the mechanism for monitoring going forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.