Thank you, Madam Chair. There are kind of two strategies that are here. Obviously, there is the Economic Opportunities Strategy and I am pleased with this strategy. Seeing this strategy and seeing some of the implementation, I see it as very conducive to some of the business that is done in the South Slave. I know that they had some public consultation there. In this report, some of the comments are tying the two of them together and I have some difficulties with that because I am obviously supportive of the Economic Opportunities Strategy and a lot of the initiatives that are in there.
The Mineral Development Strategy, on the other hand, my colleagues have expressed concerns with the consultation with the general public. I was there for the launch of the strategy, which was done at a major mining conference. Some people questioned why it wouldn’t have been launched in the Northwest Territories, but when you have the opportunity to launch it in a national light I thought that was a good opportunity to get it out that the Government of the Northwest Territories is looking at doing a Mineral Development Strategy. Should we have done more consultation? Sure. Our committee had a report done by Pembina and we should have had more answers and concerns that were in that report given to us, but we weren’t. That’s the downside of the Mineral Development Strategy.
Going forward, implementation-wise, we’ll have to see what the future brings on that strategy. I know the Minister is committed to some reviews in a short period of time. My comments, Madam Chair, are just the fact that we tied both of these strategies together because they basically rolled out at the same time. I guess I definitely see some of the concerns with the Mineral Development Strategy and where we go to relieve that or make that better the next time definitely needs to be taken into consideration.
Those are where my concerns are. Most of my concerns in this report are directed at the Mineral Development Strategy, not so much at the Economic Opportunities Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.