Mr. Chairman, thank you. The project description, the environmental and regulatory stuff, is, indeed, a big piece of work, but I haven't seen anything yet that says there is anything in there that might be a deal breaker, so I have confidence there. Of course, the bottom line for this is knowing that we do have a secure customer for this project and I am wondering if there is any kind of a timeline or threshold that we are looking at there, Mr. Chairman, in terms of getting a go or no-go from the diamond mines. I know that one other potentially viable customer for Taltson power is the southern grid. The Taltson system is only about 100 kilometres from the furthest reach of the grid in northern Saskatchewan, as I understand it. So how are we doing on our search for a customer, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Premier.

Mr. Chairman, our first preference is to serve our own needs in our territory. We are negotiating with the mining companies. We don't have a firm deal with them yet. They will need to see some fairly specific numbers and we can't provide that to them yet. As I said earlier, there is a strong interest in it with Gahcho Kue in environmental review now and the potential of four mines. We certainly have a good, strong customer base in the diamond mining areas.

The one obstacle that we are not 100 percent over yet, because of the political difficulties of Lutselk'e, is the transmission line going through the Lutselk'e traditional area. The leaders there tell us that they don't have difficulty with a power line going through their area as long as there is no development on the Lockhart River, which we hadn't planned on doing anyway. That should also be lined up more once we know more of the specifics on the project.

Mr. Chairman, the other is on the southern markets. That is always plan B. We are very aware, as is the Alberta government, that there is a growing need for clean energy. As the Minister of ENR said the other day, they are dusting off a proposal for a hydro project on the Slave River. We clearly believe that the money we are investing now is not wasted. It's going to be money that's going to be used at some point, whether it's a northern customer or southern customer. That money will be well invested now and will be useful in the future. The environment isn't going to change, nor is the technology going to change.

So we don't have a firmed up customer yet. We expect to have one this spring. We are aiming at having a project that would go into environmental review within months. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier Handley. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the update. I agree with the Premier; this is money well invested. It will continue to hold value even if we can't bring anything to completion right away. What I do look at, though, Mr. Chairman, is how long are we going to continue to put money into these kinds of preparatory projects before we know that there will be a payback, if you will.

In another file, we have extended in the neighbourhood of $3 million to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, again with the expectation and the hope that that bridge will become a reality. We don't know for sure, though. So it's the continuous feed of taxpayers' money into projects that may or may not have a quick or reasonably quick completion that I want to have a sense of. I am certainly in support of the program here and I appreciate the Premier's outline.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Bell. Mr. Vician. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we would be naive to think that we could pull off one of these big mega projects without having some investment up front. We know we have to do that. That's the only way we get the big projects. We have to take some risks, whether it's the bridge, whether it's this one or some other big mega project we are undertaking.

On the hydro one, I have to say that we were moving along very optimistically with the old government and the green fund, and were close to signing an agreement with fairly substantial federal investment in hydro development before the change in government. I don't know where that is at right now. It's one of the things we will have to find out over the next couple of weeks, but I would hope that there is the same appetite for clean energy with the new government as there was with the old one. We will know that shortly with the new government. Clearly, our plan is to do what we can on the pre-engineering, pre-feasibility, line up the customers, line up the supports from the aboriginal partners and move this one as quickly as we can. We aren't going to carry on for years. It will come to an end probably this year if we can't move it. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier Handley. We are on page 11-22, total grants and contributions, $2.255 million.

Thank you, committee. Page 11-24 and 11-25, energy, mines and petroleum resources, active positions. Any questions?

Thank you. Page 11-27, activity summary, economic development, operations expenditure summary, $22.666 million.

Thank you. Page 11-29, economic development, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To a couple of programs on page 11-26, activity description under economic development and this page covers investment and economic analysis, tourism and parks and the Business Development Investment Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Can the Minister advise in the...

Thank you, committee. We are now back on page 11-27. Please proceed, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will have to get my running shoes on to keep up.

---Laughter

Here they are right here. I will keep them handy.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. They are brand new!

---Laughter

Mr. Chairman, tourism has a very strong potential for advancement in this city here, fuelled by some very good investment by the private sector in hotel and accommodation facilities. In the convention and meeting industry, we have several hundred hotel rooms here now. Yellowknife has hosted, quite successfully, a couple of major national meetings for hundreds of delegates, but we have done so on an ad hoc basis, Mr. Chairman. Many other communities of our size and lure, I would say, have gotten an organized strategic initiative going to attract conventions and meetings.

I know that our government has been involved, along with our city, the private sector, the territorial and federal government, over a number of years in a number of different ways. I am wondering if the Minister could advise, from our point of view, what is the status of getting a standalone convention and meeting bureau up and running at least for Yellowknife, if not the Northwest Territories, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Bell.

Mr. Chairman, obviously I agree with the Member that the $100 million a year that the Northwest Territories is seeing out of tourism is very good. We know that we think we can improve on that with our tourism 2010 plan. We'd like to be up in the neighbourhood of about $45 million more by the end of that plan. One of the things that's being considered is a convention bureau. Separate and apart from the issue of convention centre and a physical bricks and mortar location is this concept of a convention bureau. I've had discussions and meetings with the group that was spearheading that, steered them in the direction of the NWTT. I saw that as the logical keeper of an initiative like this and the logical home and place. NWTT has had some discussions. I know the Member attended in Hay River the AGM where there was further discussion around the convention bureau and whether or not it would be properly housed there. There are some differing opinions, but, at any rate, that work moves forward. We've, as a department, sponsored some of that work, provided some contribution money to the group doing that analysis and putting together the business case. That was the latest update that I have. I don't believe that they've been back to us since that point, but I can certainly endeavour to provide Members with an update. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Bell, for the update. So the ball is in someone else's court on that right now. I know it's been in a number of courts, so we'll look forward to hopefully moving that one along soon.

Mr. Chairman, I think also in this area is a longstanding interest of mine in the arts, Mr. Chairman. This covers a number of areas and it's in the performing arts, the musical arts, the visual arts, arts and crafts, traditional and cultural, of course, but a very wide scope, which we made an attempt to capture in an Arts Strategy that this department along with ECE share responsibility for. I see in the budget document before us, which I know does not go into great detail at all, Mr. Chairman, I don't see any mention whatsoever of how the department is approaching its role in terms of the NWT Arts Strategy and that's the question that I'd like to leave on the table now. What can we anticipate from this department and what is its mandate in the coming year in the Arts Strategy, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Bell.