Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s perspective. When you look at the department, it’s varied what responsibilities we have. As Minister, it’s my job to try not to pay too much attention to one area and try to balance myself out and support all the efforts that the department has, whether it be in small business, tourism, the traditional economy, manufacturing and services or projects like the Mackenzie Gas Project, offshore developments.

These are going to be important to the Northwest Territories and the residents here in the Northwest Territories. Yes, market conditions will dictate somewhat, but at some point in time when those resources are developed, when we have a Devolution Agreement complete here in the Northwest Territories, we will be getting resource royalties here into our coffers here in the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Within 60 days of that Devolution Agreement, we can go back to the federal government and look at negotiating a deal on offshore royalties much like the provinces of Newfoundland/Labrador and Nova Scotia have. To me, that’s where the future lies when you look at resourcing government objectives, providing programs and services for people in this territory for decades to come. We need to balance all of that and it’s a tough one to do, but my objective, as Minister, is to try to balance all of that. I have to be many things to many people. I’ve sat down with the agricultural folks in Hay River. I’ve been to mining conferences, oil, it runs the full gamut. It’s just taking a balanced approach to everything.

I mentioned earlier a diversified economy is a strong economy and that’s what my focus as Minister is going to be, is that diversification and providing opportunities in all of our communities. That’s why I’m so excited about the advancement of this Economic Development Strategy and what it means to the Northwest Territories as we move our economy forward. I think we have just scratched the surface when it comes to providing jobs to people in the small communities. I think if we put a real effort into this strategy, it will pay huge dividends for us down the road. Thank you.