Finance committee  I'm not sure how much impact that would really have in the Yukon. When we're talking large infrastructure projects, unless it were to move to a P3 initiative, private sector dollars would not be that involved to benefit from that.

Finance committee  Typically our business community and our corporate world in the Yukon is very small with very limited financial resources. What we have been very successful doing is partnering with southern companies or international companies, particularly in the mining area with the Chinese government-owned companies and Chinese privately owned companies to invest in the territories.

Finance committee  For projects as large as energy projects, it is my belief that our businesses really don't have the financial capacity to be involved in those.

Finance committee  As Tara mentioned earlier, we are facing future serious shortages in energy—not that we won't have energy, but we will have to rely on burning diesel fuel to supply our energy needs. That is not what the people of the Yukon are wanting. As you see, we live in a beautiful part of the country, and we'd like to keep it that way.

Finance committee  Yukon enjoys eight sedimentary basins of natural gas. Much of this resource has to be further explored, but in the Eagle Plains area, which is north of Whitehorse, there are substantial findings that have been proven true, and work is currently being done looking at the feasibility of liquefying the natural gas to support the residential and commercial population of the territory as well as the industrial users.

Finance committee  I know they sold debentures for the Mayo B project as well as for transmission lines. I probably shouldn't be speaking to this, but I don't believe they carry debt. It has to go through public utilities, so I think there are some concerns about that.

Finance committee  Today it's just for Yukon. We do work with our colleagues in the other two territories, as well as in northern Labrador. We talk about these infrastructure issues, and we know they exist across the north.

Finance committee  Open up the wallets.

Finance committee  We do not have a comprehensive strategy. The creation of CanNor has been an asset to the north. It's not been without its challenges. However, it's very new in its life, so we look forward to working with them in terms of accessing dollars or doing the types of studies that need to be done so that we can develop our road map going forward.

Finance committee  I think probably Tara could speak a little bit more to the regulatory environment, but yes, I think we have quite a superior regulatory environment we operate in. In terms of the labour market, the labour market is definitely an issue, our labour force. In the 1990s businesses really downsized in the territories and they went back to being owner-operated.

Finance committee  I think that to the Canadian business community at large it would stifle business growth. For Yukon, it would more than stifle business growth. As I said earlier, we're in a high-cost-of-living area, a high-cost area to do business. Because of our geographic location and our distance to markets, it would cripple our economy.

Finance committee  It's incredible, the commitment to the north that the Prime Minister has given. We've never seen that before. I don't even think that with John Diefenbaker we saw this level of commitment and vision for the north. In terms of the northern strategy, I would probably want to limit my comments to the economic development, but again, it goes back to the detailed economic development strategy that recognizes the uniqueness of each territory, because we are incredibly unique from our sister territories to the east.

Finance committee  Yes, it is.

Finance committee  You bring up a good point. We're always cognizant that we don't want more debt in our country, and you have to manage the finances. Then we come on the other hand and we're asking for stuff that costs money. I think this leads to our first recommendation, and that's the creation of an economic development strategy that will be the road map in terms of what we do.

Finance committee  It is the failing, aging infrastructure. The infrastructure was first developed by the federal government through the Northern Canada Power Commission, and that was in the fifties, I believe. Then it was sold to Yukon after that. The aging equipment is our major problem. Sometimes there are environmental issues such as storms.