Thank you, Minister Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Of course, I am not alone when I say I would be very interested to see this report when it comes out. It sounds comprehensive looking at the subsidiaries, Community Futures and Dev Corp activities. Specific to community futures, is this review going to look at each and every one, because there are some that are more successful than others. I am wondering if there is going to be surveys associated with trying to find out what works and what doesn't work. How are we going about making this comprehensive as we can and including everything, no stone unturned? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, that is our intention. We will acknowledge that we've had a range of success at our Community Futures organization. Some, we think, have been quite successful, and others not. We want to better understand why, and the only way we can do that is to look at all of them and talk about best practices. This work is separate and apart from the business program review, but we think in early March the consultant will have this completed. They will have the final report to us. They have done on-site visits with the CFs. The analysis and drafting is underway. So early March, again, we are going to have this piece and it will be comprehensive. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister for that. As long as it is everyone and it's not the ones who are working, but it's everyone. That's the important piece that has to be included in this. You can't just talk to the ones that are being successful. You have to find out the ones that aren't working and why they aren't working. So I thank the Minister for that.

One other issue that I just wanted to touch on, and I have mentioned this before, but the Bureau of Statistics -- and I know the Minister is not the Minister of Finance, but I will get to that in a second -- moves over to strategic planning under the Department of Executive. That happens, and all of a sudden the government thinks it's important to have a macroeconomic policy division located within the Department of Finance. Is it a coincidence that they lost the Bureau of Stats and now they want to replace it with something? I don't think it's a coincidence. I just think that's the nature of government and them wanting to replace something.

What I am getting at with the Minister of ITI is I know that the Department of ITI has an investment and economic analysis division that certainly, given the history of our economy, the pipeline from Norman Wells, we produce 14 percent of the world's total production of diamonds, we are on the verge of this mega pipeline project, surely to God we have been doing some work on macroeconomic policy with this government and it has happened in your department, Mr. Minister.

I wonder to myself -- and I am wondering out loud now to my colleagues -- was there ever a discussion to include the new macroeconomic policy division inside ITI where it would be more of a fit? It doesn't belong in Finance. It belongs in your shop. You have been doing the work for a number of years. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, we do have some functions. We have a mining economist, an oil and gas economist and we are sectoral focussed. This capacity that we are looking at developing is broader; broader than that. It has this macroeconomic slant. So we are going to be continuing to work on our sectoral analysis of renewable resources, tourism and traditional economy and business economics, more micro, I think the largest macro piece is something we have been lacking. We have been doing work to the best of our ability on projects and projects specific like the pipeline and think we need this ability. So there could be some debate about where it's housed, but when we sat down as a Cabinet to have this discussion, we felt it made the most sense housed where we proposed. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I really do find it hard to believe that a government wakes up one day and realizes that it is missing a macroeconomic policy division. It should start out and do some work on that. After years and years of economic development here in the Northwest Territories, that, to me, is really hard to believe. Again, I think where it is housed is definitely...I take issue with that. When the Finance Minister comes before us soon, I am going to take issue with that division being located in that department. Again, I think it is just a case of them losing something and wanting to replace it. That is it, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Bell.

Thank you. Maybe one other point I should make is that some of the impression that we have been giving on macroeconomic work that we have been doing and what we have been doing has been coming from my department was not done in house. Members might not be aware of that. The stuff like the Wright Mansell report which we've relied on quite heavily and probably spent over $100,000 on, we had to go out for that work. It has been very useful and helpful, but we've talked about the economic...done a bit of a cost-benefit analysis of do we continue to go out to consultants for this work or do we have the in house capacity? Because we really don't have it on that level at this point and think we need to get that capacity. That will be an interesting discussion between the Member and the Minister of Finance. I am sure we all look forward to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Economic development, operations expenditure summary, $22,666,000.

Agreed. Thank you. Page 11-29, economic development, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $652,000. Mr. Yakeleya.

Page 11-29. Thank you, Madam Chair. The ITI is administering the trappers program and receives the funding. However, ITI receives the funding

for the trappers program. ENR administrates the program. Renewable Resources still falls under these programs that ITI receives the funding for. Does it not make any sense to put the funding and the administration in one shot? We are still in two different departments here. I want to ask the Minister if he has given any consideration to have some discussions with the Minister of ENR on one department should take that, rather than having it split. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we divided the department, we had some pretty good discussion around this area. I have indicated that we think after a year on now, it is time for review. We have proposed to come back to committee to discuss the roles and mandates of ITI and ENR in this area. I know Member Lafferty also raised the question earlier around adequacy and whether or not our programs keep pace, given the high cost of fuel and other things. That is all part of the discussion we need to have with committee. I look forward to that.

I would say that the money shows up in our budget. Many of these initiatives like the Mackenzie Valley genuine fur program we think is economic development. We want to make sure that we work hard to promote a program like that. We've seen a lot of recent success. Some of it, of course, due to the prices that are being fetched at recent auction which, I don't know if Members are aware, but it has been quite amazing. It is much higher than it was in the 1990s. That bodes very well for our trappers going forward. So we think it is economic development, but there is no doubt that the best people on the ground to be working with our trappers are the renewable resource officers. They are on the ground in the communities working with our trappers. That will continue to be the arrangement. I think we can have some discussion around this.

Just a little bit of an interesting note for Members, I am not sure if they know, but the last North Bay auction on February 20th, marten is kind of our bellwether and the one that we watch very closely because we are seeing a lot of marten come out of the Northwest Territories. The average price is $110. It was a high of $270 at that auction, so that is quite a significant price for marten; quite an improvement from past years. We are very optimistic that the work that we are doing with our trappers will pay off here. It is nice to see this starting to come through and starting to see our furs fetch such high prices. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Minister. Good news for the trappers in terms of the marten price. I don't know what is happening, but I hope that it keeps on going in terms of the prices.

Madam Chair, I want to ask the Minister in terms of his review of the ITI and ENR in terms of the programs, is the Minister also considering in his review in terms of enhancing? I think because of the high cost of fuel and that, it is really difficult in terms of giving some sort of rebate because of the Canadian Revenue Collection Agency in terms of how it administers. Would the Minister, in his review, look at what type of programs they can have to enhance current training programs for trappers and harvesters in terms of this fuel rebate issue? It is something that is quite dear to our trappers in all the small communities down the Mackenzie Valley, the high cost of fuel. I look forward to see if solutions are being discussed to see if we can offset this issue for the trappers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We think the traditional economy programs that we're running and supporting are vital to economic development in our communities, especially our smallest communities, so we are looking at things like our Community Harvesters Assistance Program, our local wildlife committee funding, our harvesters disaster compensation, also Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program and the trapper training work that we do, the traditional life skills training. We are looking at adequacy. We currently have that under review. I think, as we come forward to have this discussion, myself and the ENR Minister, we look forward to your thoughts on that. We want to talk about whether or not these programs are keeping pace with the increased costs. I think we know the answer. We have to talk about what we do to make sure that, as costs increase in the future, these programs keep pace. That is a good discussion I think that we will have with committee. I think it is one that we've needed to have for some time, but let me underscore how important these programs are to us. They are of highest priority. We certainly are not forgetting about them. We want to make sure that we support these programs and that the funding is adequate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I look forward to some of the discussions. Certainly, I hope we have some good news for our trappers and harvesters in terms of enhancing some of the programs that would make a real contribution to continuing the harvesting of the traditional economy in the small communities. So I look forward to that. I am going to leave it at that. I want to say thank you to the Minister in terms of really supporting our region in terms of our trapping program. I think that is some good news for us. There are other areas I would like to continue, but I think I want to leave it for the review when the Minister comes back to the committee to have a real good discussion on the review and that. I will leave it at that, Mr. Chair.