What about the socio-economic agreement? When do we anticipate that to come into force and are there people amongst these six staff that are working on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had previously identified $300,000 for the operation of the Socio-economic Advisory Board and we have deferred that until 2012-2013 -- I believe it will show up in one of the pages -- and that is mainly due to scheduling changes and there is no position associated with that at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My understanding is that our socio-economic agreement stipulates that the pipeline proponents will contribute a spectacular $75,000 a year for the socio-economic office. In fact, I understand that there won’t be an office. Is that still the case?

Not at this time.

It just seems that given the agreement that we have apparently signed, it is essentially the agreement from the proponents, I would suggest that the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office has a lot of work they could be doing towards an improved socio-economic agreement before the project goes ahead. Is there the expertise within that office to look at that should we decide that is a reasonable direction for their work? Thank you.

We have signed an agreement with the proponents which still stands. There are some appendices that have to still be negotiated, mainly in the area of transportation and health. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Again, my concern is, you know, we have looked at this agreement in committee and it’s full of holes. It doesn’t hold water. Is there nothing, I suppose we are just committed to this now, we have signed it, there is nothing else we can do to improve that in the five to eight years in the meantime.

The agreement was signed in the 15

th

Assembly and that agreement is binding

for the life of the project. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, that’s all. Thank you.

I wanted to clarify before I left with Mr. Bromley, he had asked me a question in his general comments about revenues. I didn’t have a chance; I forgot to address it in the response. I just wanted to indicate that the main reason for the reduction in the revenues was that we reduced the interest rates that were charged by the Business Development Institute of Canada while the economy was in a downturn for two years, so that is why the revenues dropped in that area. I just wanted to add that in. Thank you for your indulgence.

Mr. Bromley, did that answer your question?

It did indeed, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate the Minister filling in that gap. Thank you.

Okay, next I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the Minister, in regards to the Government of the Northwest Territories socio-economic agreements with industry and the monitoring of these industry activities, and I want to ask, with the socio-economic agreements with the mines, I have been approached by one employee that was working at the mines and he wanted me to check and see when there are layoffs and people are asked to leave work for whatever reasons from the mines, a statement that was made by this individual was that they lay off the Aboriginal people first before they start laying off other people and he thought that was discriminatory and that it wasn’t fair and he asked me how closely is the Government of the Northwest Territories monitoring or taking the socio-economic agreements to task by meeting with the mining companies. He thought that should be looked at, so I want to ask the Minister what is the mine doing to mitigate some of these concerns that I have heard.

Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will respond in a general way and then I will have Mr. Vician. I think the best way to look at it is, when we had a downturn in the economy and two of the three diamond mines shut down for extended periods, the people that were laid off were mainly southern workers that didn’t live in the Northwest Territories. So the mines went to special effort to keep Aboriginal and northern employees on and they did that until the economy recovered and I think things may have changed when the mines moved from open pit to underground mining where the skill sets required a change. That could have impacted.

I would like to reassure the Member that there is human rights legislation that was passed by this Assembly to protect against any possibilities of discrimination and I would like to ask, through you, Mr. Chairman, for Mr. Vician then to explain how we monitor the reporting through the socio-economic agreements. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Deputy Minister Vician.

Thank you, Mr. Vician. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If it is possible, if I could ask the Minister if he has reports as to indicate the miners or the workers that were released were the southern workers that the Minister indicated when they had the economic downturn and that certainly when mining companies changed their operations to an underground mine, then maybe that is a factor that showed that they need more skilled workers there that contribute to hiring more southern workers to operate their mines at a different level of operations.

Minister if ITI.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We can go back and provide information. Also if the Member has specific individuals that have been affected, we could pass information on and we could follow up with the mining companies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I appreciate the Minister’s offer and I would take him up on his offer. I want to ask the Minister also on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office, we certainly want to continue to support the operation and look at where they can help support communities along the valley that look forward to training. It takes awhile to be an apprentice, pipefitter or any type of trade that would be required for the pipeline. That’s part of what we’re looking for in the support to get our communities up and trained to prepare for a pipeline, if there’s going to be a pipeline. I want to ask the Minister if that’s something we continue to do with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Office.