Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government of the Northwest Territories' mandate document highlights that benefits from non-renewable resource productions enables an investment in many of the priority areas of our Assembly. The primary means by which this Government is addressing the Assembly's priorities in this area is the ongoing implementation of the Northwest Territories Mineral Development Strategy. Establishing a Mining Industry Advisory Board has played a very important role. They are helping us to get the word out to industry that the Northwest Territories is a good place to work and to invest in.

The Fraser Institute, which sets out a report on an annual basis, has always indicated that the geologic potential of the Northwest Territories is very high. We are always in the top ten. But on the working in the Northwest Territories, we have been very low. We have been rated right up there with the Congo, at times, at 39thplace. So we are very surprised at the ratings we were getting, so we approached the Fraser Institute and asked them what their process was. We found out that most of the people that were submitting hadn't worked in the Northwest Territories for a long time, and the ones that are here now hadn't had the opportunity to fill out these questionnaires that they send out. So we are going to make sure that they are working with current information and that they know what the realities are.

We also have the Mining Development Strategy, which is a very important piece of our toolkit. We invest in geoscience, which is the backbone of mining. We also invest in prospector training to train prospectors. We also provide a Mineral Incentive Program, which provides funding of up to $400,000 annually to junior mining companies, and that has been over-subscribed since its introduction. We are working very closely with industry so that we can continue to get ready, so that when the commodity prices come back, we'll be ready to see the Northwest Territories take its rightful place so that exploration spending will be back up where it was in 2008. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.