Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So from ITI we have the director of petroleum resources on the working group, and, as I said, there are people from -- I would have to get the specifics -- Public Works and Services has an individual; Lands also has someone on there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. Will the Minister make a commitment to actually get some community members on there? Because I know in some of our regions and some of our ridings we have people who are really interested in this geothermal. So will the Minister make a commitment to get community members on there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I'm just really hoping that the Minister will work with some of the communities. I know in Fort Liard they've had proposals in the past, and it's a great opportunity for that community, too; you know, agriculture, heating, power, a whole bunch of opportunities there, and also employment.

So I greatly appreciate the Minister and his answer, and I'm looking forward to working with him on this file as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That will be my final comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Take that as a comment. Any further questions from committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we know that the Mining and Mineral Strategy for the Northwest Territories was kind of a pre-devolution product, and I'm just wondering if the department has any kind of reason or will they be giving consideration toward renewing the strategy now that it's post-devolution, kind of taking those evolutionary steps in that strategy? Or is that even necessary if we are going to go into creating a new act? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the short answer is, yes, we're going to have a review of the Mining and Mineral Strategy moving forward. So thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister elaborate a little bit more on what that's going to entail? Will there be a public engagement process or a consultative process, and how long do we anticipate it will take to go through this process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member is well aware, when we were down at Roundup this actually came up in one of my meetings, or several of my meetings, if we were going to have a look at this thing. So this is something we've considered since we got back from Mineral Roundup and this is early days in how we're going to do this. Like I said, this is a big one for the Department of ITI moving forward and, again, we'll be engaging committee as we move forward and get their input on how we should be developing some of these items. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That leads me to quickly touch on the work that's being done to create a new act, and I think I basically have similar questions along those lines, in that what will be the process that this government is going to take to, I guess, streamline our approach to regulatory environment and kind of bring it in line with our priorities. What's the intention there in terms of getting the act under way, who are we going to consult and engage with, and what kind of timelines are we looking at? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I answered this question earlier on moving forward on how we're going to engage everyone. We're going to get input from committee on how we're going to do this. This is a big act for the Government of the Northwest Territories moving forward. We want to bring the administration and land tenure and royalties together under one act, so it's going to take a lot of input from a number of stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, Aboriginal governments, NGOs, citizens at large, so we'll be engaging probably as many people as we can as we move this forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We know that a number of our Aboriginal governments have started to advance their regional mineral development strategies. Is our government working in collaboration with them to help them, assist them in doing their mineral development strategies? What kind of part will those strategies play in our new post-devolution Mining and Mineral Strategy? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The latest one we worked on with Aboriginal governments was in the Deh Cho, which was, from my understanding a great success on moving it forward and getting an interest on how they want to move their mineral strategy forward. How it's tied to the Government of the Northwest Territories is probably going to depend greatly on regions, as we have settled claims in many of the regions in the Northwest Territories and it's a shared responsibility on a number of initiatives on how we move some of these things forward.

As for the unsettled claims, I think it brings a lot of certainty working on a mineral development strategy with them, as industry certainly wants. The number one thing is certainty moving forward, and anything we can help facilitate with the Aboriginal governments on their own mineral development strategy, we'll be at the table to assist them on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.