Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to join my colleagues today who have very eloquently spoken to the issue of the Deze Energy Corporation. This corporation actually had its origins in a previous government and it does have similarities to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation.

This was the idea and brainchild of a government and of people who are not any longer sitting at this table. Yet we here as a government... Oh, well, some of them are still here.

---Laughter

The idea of the structure and ownership of this corporation has merit in the fact that I think recognition should be given to the First Nations people on whose land this project will either be transmitted or even those who have an interest in the Taltson. However, to give so much of it away that this government then does no longer have control over what happens makes a mockery of what we’re trying to do here as a government. We have to look out for the public interest; the Deze Energy Corporation does not. We’re here for all the people of the Northwest Territories.

I have to tell you, we talk and boast of our huge hydro potential and all of our resources here in the Northwest Territories, but every time a reasonable project comes up that could benefit in ways that we haven’t even quantified -- employment, training, business, economic opportunities -- what’s the first thing we say is the biggest deterrent? Can’t afford the power. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pellet mill at Patterson’s in Hay River. It doesn’t matter if it’s a processing plant for Avalon at Pine Point. It doesn’t matter what kind of a manufacturing project it is. Every time it comes down to the same common denominator: we can’t afford to do these things in the North because we can’t afford the power bill. Yet here we are with all of this potential for hydro and we have to ensure that this route of transmission of power from the Taltson, once the Taltson dam is expanded, goes on a path and route that picks up the most opportunity possible, serves the most communities, the most people and the most potential for economic development.