The mighty Sahtu. Thank you. I stand corrected; the mighty Sahtu. So the comment that I would like to leave with committee, Mr. Chair, is that, as I say while there may be a lot of attention focused on one sector of the outfitting industry right now, and indeed there are major hurdles that the department has accountability for, there are many other regions of the NWT and many other people who have invested in this industry on the strength of our government's mandate and stewardship of wildlife resources. We are saying that these species can be harvested for sports hunting for revenue. We have invested a tremendous amount of money, Mr. Chairman, and human resources in designing the regulatory framework and the monitoring, as well, Mr. Chairman, as the investment that's gone into overall tourism marketing, and I'm including in here the money that is specifically earmarked for outfitters and for the sports hunting industry. So my plea here is to not lose sight of the broader and the bigger and the longer-term context of sports hunting and outfitting as a very genuine and, I advocate very strongly, a sustainable and responsible part of our overall wildlife regime and our economies.

Mr. Chairman, this department shares responsibility with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in the NWT Arts Strategy. Roughly speaking, the ECE department has a responsibility for what is largely called art for arts sake, while my understanding is that this Department of ITI has more of a commercial, marketing and an economic accent. However, in going over the detail that's provided in the budget, and for that matter in the business plan -- perhaps I've missed it, Mr. Chairman, and we can get to it at the appropriate point in the papers here -- I see no reference, no accent, no highlight whatsoever to this department's mandate for doing its part through the Arts Strategy to enhance the corporate and the commercial and the economic side of the arts.

Mr. Chairman, in the department's business plan documents, and I don't think I'm taking liberty here when I say that our evaluation tonight is indeed on the appropriation from 2007-08, but it is also a three-year business plan that we're looking at for all the departments of the government. It's noted here that the NWT is experiencing an out-migration in population. In other words, fewer people are choosing to stay here in the NWT. It's quite a contrast when we have Canada's sort of biggest GDP by population, the most activity going on of virtually any region in Canada relative to our size, and yet people are leaving. We go over this on a very routine basis, Mr. Chairman. What are the causes of this? Cost of living, isolation, hot economy in our neighbouring provinces that attracts them away. But I think we should really be taking much more of an in-depth look at this, Mr. Chairman. If we are to sustain the growth that we're seeing here, the needs of our population, then this is something that I think we should be ramping up on the radar screen for something that deserves our attention really because, as I've said, Mr. Chairman, sustaining and expecting growth in the areas that we've become used to really won't be possible.

Mr. Chairman, another aspect of planning and taking a look at the landscape, the environment that we're operating is even though resources are key and the reason for the success and the optimism that we have, the major project, the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline is not a certainty. We are still waiting for the agencies and the decision-makers well outside our jurisdiction to make up their mind about whether or not this is indeed a viable project. While this government has firmly staked its ground as wanting this project to happen, we've invested heavily again in the preparatory actions to get ready for it, in the event, the unfortunate and hopefully unlikely event that it does not happen, or does not happen within the time frame or the scale or the scope that we want it to, what then do we have to come and fill in the gaps and provide some long-term sustainability to our economy and to the communities, especially down the Mackenzie Valley and the delta, who will be probably drastically affected by a decision not to build this pipeline? So if we're going to be strategic about this, I think we have to, as well, cover off the potential that things just may not go as we want.

Mr. Chair, I'll stop there and see if anybody else wants to speak to general comments.