I think we have to remember that the mines, especially the diamond mines, have had a very positive impact on our northern workforce with over 20,000 person-years employed. However, we are constantly working to improve this. The mines and ourselves know that there are a number of factors that contribute, such as low commodity prices and the financial markets. The mines have to match revenues and expenditures. What they have indicated is we have a very small workforce; they have a very small pool to draw from. Consequently the more mines we have, the less ability they have to hire northern Aboriginal workers. They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, kind of thing, where you have the phenomenon of people moving from mine to mine, yet it’s the same people. The inventory is not growing larger. The safety issue is paramount, also they have very strict requirements in flying in and flying out, two weeks in and two weeks out, or the management, those that work four and three.

Essentially, those are the areas. Also they are limited to pick-up points. There are only so many pick-up points that have been negotiated. They would like to hire more across the Northwest Territories, but for example most of the socio-economic agreements don't have provisions for the mines to pay for employees outside the pick-up communities. For example, some mines are paying close to $200,000 to fly in workers from outside their area, and they are saying, “well, it's not in our socio-economic agreement, and we're doing it but we can't continue to do it as the diamond prices go down.” So those are the things that we're faced with, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.