Thank you. It's more just a comment I guess to support my colleagues as well, that the importance of the NWT economy is front and center here today. And, you know, it's been said that the future really looks bleak in the Northwest Territories with our budget that we have of $2.2 billion, $1.6 billion in the hole, and $1.8 billion is the debt wall. With the population going down here in the Northwest Territories, the mining industry is -- are winding down and so we got to look at new ways to really move towards improving the economy here in the Northwest Territories in the short order. But before we could even do that, you know, we got to -- you know, industry is looking for certainty in terms of coming North and to really develop the Northwest Territories. But we got to get the land claims settled, you know, in all the regions of the Northwest Territories. And I think that's something that we really need to take a look at and really try and get those things out of the way.

You know, I -- I chaired the Mackenzie Valley Impact Review Board on year five of the five-year review of the Mackenzie gas project. That project there, it was -- it was a big project. And at the end, they -- they -- Imperial Oil decided not to go forward with it. But, you know, that whole corridor there, you know, there's -- there's -- you know, you can really take a look at the, you know, the new pipeline. You could take a look at highway. You know, you could take a look and put all what we can down in that corridor. If we ever had to go through another EA process, that process would be a lot shorter because that whole area's already been dealt with and talked about and etcetera. So I think it's important that, you know, this government at this point right now, you know, we're going to be hitting that debt wall probably next year or year after. And we really need to think about how we're going to do business in the North now. And the economy is front and center. And I think that it's something that we can't turn away from.

And I know that when we talk about looking at how we can work with the exploration, and I know there's limited amount of monies there to really advance some of these areas compared to the Yukon, and the Yukon is spending millions of dollars in helping young companies to come into the Yukon, etcetera. And so I'm not sure if ITI is able to take a look at this area so that we can really look at advancing some of these areas and mineral developments in the Northwest Territories.

But I just want to -- want to say that to support my colleagues that this is a -- something that we -- we really need to support, and also get the land claims done. Thank you, Madam Chair.