Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Fort Smith sits on the bank of the Slave River and is the regional centre for the South Slave and has been the regional centre for a long time. Being a single-source economy has caused some concern in the community and I wanted to indicate today that there is concern, but there are a lot of good things happening in the community; more to be done, but there are a lot of good things.

There's been a continued commitment by the government, like there has been with most communities, and there's been a greater government presence through position increases ever since 1999. The new college housing will be opened up this Friday. The new pool will be opened hopefully in January. Seniors' housing is now under construction and the health centre renovations are being planned for. On our doorstep, Mr. Speaker, we have the

Taltson expansion being discussed and actively pursued; and while it poses some concern, the feasibility study on the Slave River dam is also underway, which could have a huge impact whichever way it goes. We are surrounded by exploration on all sides as people look across the North for all the resources that may be out there.

But clearly there is more to do as we look to expand our economic base. We want to look to Wood Buffalo Park, we want to look to expansions in tourism, among other things, and part of the key to that is to have greater involvement of ITI in the community. Part of that involvement means taking it off the highway where it is distant from the people it serves and have it set up on a storefront operation where they're in closer contact with the Thebacha business centre and other business services that are currently in the downtown core.

The Minister and I have had the discussion about how do we move on this and I'd like to thank him for his commitment to in fact look at that relocation. That's a key piece as we look at trying to revitalize some of the sectors of the economy like tourism that have struggled in recent years with 9/11 and other concerns that have impacted the tourist trade, as well as the need to engage Wood Buffalo National Park.

So to the people of Fort Smith I'd like to say we have a lot of good things to be thankful for. Clearly there are things we'd like to do. But overall we're moving in the right direction and, along with the help of ITI, we intend to pursue some of these other factors that will allow us to do a better job for the people. I will have questions later today in question period for the Minister of ITI. Thank you.

---Applause