Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a little bit of a review. I know the Members are aware of this, but I want to sort of lay the context as quickly if I could. Obviously, agreements between the people of the North and producers take several forms, but impact management agreements are negotiated, Members know, between the land claimant organizations and the producers group. Our government is in negotiation on the socio-economic agreement, an umbrella agreement, that we are negotiating with the producers that talks about things like employment benefits, training benefits and business opportunities. One of the things we are discussing is one the options that we are going to try to make a determination as to whether or not it is feasible, is this work around gasification of communities. It is possible that communities could have access to gas flowing down the pipeline. It could be used to generate electricity. It could be used for light manufacturing. It could be used for a number of things. We don't know, but I guess we are studying, at this point, the feasibility of that.
Separate and apart from that is the study of hydro legacy benefits that would provide hydropower to both communities and to the project. So that is a separate initiative outside of the SEA. Members are also aware of the socio-economic impact fund that the federal government recently announced, the so-called $500 million fund. That is another piece. In addition to those negotiations, discussions and our efforts, Members know of the Resource Pre-Development Program, monies that were rolled out to communities. MACA also had some funding that they had distributed to municipalities to help municipalities be able to be at the table and have discussions with the Producers Group.
The other thing that I would stress in terms of how communities are getting ready and going to cope, our discussions on gasification, for instance, because it will impact and involve communities, we have invited the NWT Association of Municipalities to be involved in that work if they would like to be. I think we are doing a number of things, Mr. Chair. The socio-economic agreements are a big part of that. Gasification is one initiative and one option underneath that SEA. Thank you.