Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe what the Minister is saying is basically the federal process or federal agency regulatory process that has afforded some funding, has been very insufficient. I believe this is where groups like the Status of Women got $5,000 to make a presentation on something or respond to this draft, which I believe by any standard it would not be adequate.

Mr. Chairman, I think there are three options the Minister could consider. One is to put forward the GNWT's pot of money, some kind of contribution money for the individuals to tap into. I think that's something the Minister has to consider. The second thing is if the Minister and government are not prepared to put money aside for individuals to tap into to get access to this process then at least this government should require that the governments

that it is funding does something that creates a forum and venue for the individual residents to come and speak.

The third option, and I think this could all be done together and concurrently, is that the Minister has to be more forceful with the federal government about making more funds available for the residents of the NWT to have a say in this project that will outsize anything we've ever seen before, and one that has a lot of people very anxious. I just don't know why the federal government and the big businesses and everybody cannot see that this is not going to succeed unless people affected have a chance to vent their opinions. Even if they can't change things, they need to be able to speak to what this means to them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with much of what the Member is saying. I think we've had public meetings with the joint committee, public meetings in Norman Wells, I've been to meet with the town council in Hay River and had a good dialogue about the challenges that they face and they're saying essentially the same sorts of things that the Member is articulating here today in the House. We know the MACA Minister heard this message loud and clear at the forum in Inuvik, the community leadership forum, and has since written to his federal counterparts to insist that more needs to be done to aid these communities in providing funding. We know that the social envelope Ministers will embark on a process to hear from the stakeholders about the social impacts of development. I expect that from that dialogue and discussion with key stakeholders, we'll hear again the same sort of message and that will allow us to go to the federal government and advocate for additional funding so that people can, in fact, have the capacity to put their voices to the process and have their issues dealt with and addressed.

So we're focussing on communities. We are working closely with community leadership. Community leadership needs help and we're trying to get them the additional help. Many of the stakeholders, including NGO's and other organizations in the Northwest Territories, will need additional help as well, and we intend to take that message as we have been, but intend to continue to take that message to the federal government because, quite simply, we don't have the additional adequate resources to bring to bear to fund individuals so they can participate more fully in this process. As I mentioned, we've chosen to focus our limited resources on working with groups like the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, but also with communities through programs like the RPDP and will continue that approach.

I think this is exactly the kind of input and dialogue we need and will, I think, strengthen our argument and our case with the federal government. I thank the Member for the comments.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Next I have Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question. I know the Minister had answered the first part of this question in the House the other day, but under the diamond projects division there are currently two consultants that are employed by the diamond projects division and RWED. I know the Minister said one was in Antwerp and one was in Israel. I'm wondering if that shows up under contracted services or does it show up under purchased services. Where would we find that amount? I'm not sure if the Minister knows, but what exactly are we paying the two diamond consultants? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll get that level of detail, but that does show up in contracts and would come under the diamond projects division. I'll see if I can get the amount of the contracts that we're referring to for the two consultants, one located in Antwerp and the other located in Israel. If you'll just bear with me here one moment we'll see if we have that information handy. Okay, I've given my ballpark guess in the House the other day at a couple hundred thousand dollars U.S. for the two contracts. We'll confirm that and get the actual proposed expenditure for 2005-06 to the Member as soon as we can here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to seeing that. I don't want to get into micromanaging or anything like that, but I think given what's happened recently with the secondary industry here in the Northwest Territories it's important that we know, also, coupled with the information the Minister's going to supply in terms of what the two consultants are being paid, I'd also like to know what exactly they are mandated to do on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Obviously there's a disconnect here somewhere with our secondary industry and I'd like to try to understand a little bit better what their mandate is, what role they play and how much we're paying for it. So if that information could accompany the other information, that would be great, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We'll ensure that we provide that information so that the Member has better information as to the services being provided for both of those proposed contracts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One other thing while we're on strategic initiatives. The money that was allocated in the past for the Mackenzie Valley development office was staffed by an assistant ADM and a couple other staffers. What is the transition going from the previous budget into this budget? Where does that money fall? Does it fall under the new Mackenzie Valley pipeline office? What's the transition there in terms of funding? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The funding remains in strategic initiatives as part of the corporate expense and I may be able to provide the Member with some more detail here if you'll bear with me for just a moment.

Thank you. Mr. Bell.

Thank you for your patience, Mr. Chairman, and to the Members. The 2004-2005 Main Estimates were $1.175 million. That was prior to the supplementary appropriation we spoke of earlier of $850,000. That resulted in 2004-05 revised mains of $2.025 million. We have the additional expense of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office through this transition that the Member just referred to and a couple of other smaller adjustments that are less significant, but the end result is $1.959 million for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office in the 2005-06 mains. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I'm trying to just understand how it all works itself out. I think I understand. One other question while I've got a bit of time here. I'm wondering what work the diamond projects division does in terms of ensuring that the producers that we do have here in the Northwest Territories are in fact employing northern workers to the best of their ability. Do we have any kind of muscle, I guess, in terms of trying to ensure that they are hiring northern workers? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That really isn't diamond projects per se, unless we're referring to the employment in the actual factories. But I think the Member is alluding to, if I understand him, the producers and employment at the mines and whether or not they're meeting their socioeconomic agreement targets. Those employment numbers are reported on by both the Ekati Mine and the Diavik Mine in their annual reports. They show the actual breakdown between northern and southern. The most recent one that I've seen for Diavik, I believe, also because there were varied targets or differential targets between operations and construction had it broken down by the two phases. So we have that information and that's public information. I believe it has been tabled in the House, but we can certainly provide those annual reports to the Member. That is the reporting mechanism and that allows us to then, in fact, see if targets are being met.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's just an observation I suppose in terms of the diamond projects division. Perhaps something else they might be able to do is work with the producers to ensure that they are hiring North as much as they can and living up to the points in the socioeconomic agreements so that we do get a northern workforce and they are, whenever possible, hiring North. That's maybe just a suggestion for the Minister for him to look at in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.