Natural Resources committee  Thank you. The devolution negotiations are proceeding apace. We're targeting to have a deal by the end of this calendar year. We've negotiated on a comparative basis improvements to what the Yukon did. They set the initial bar in terms of the A-base money, the resource revenue sharing agreements, and now they are of course watching with great interest to see what we finally sign on.

Natural Resources committee  I appreciate your comments. Yes, we're one of two jurisdictions that don't have those authorities. Every other Canadian jurisdiction, like Alberta, for example, as you've indicated, couldn't even imagine today not having that authority. It's absolutely critical for us to be able to map out the way forward, how we want to go, where we want to go, and how we want to get there.

Natural Resources committee  With regard to basic business skills, it is a challenge for not only businesses but in fact just for the running of communities. It's a challenge to find people with the administrative skills to do the work at the hamlet level, at the community level, to manage the money there. That, along with trying to support small business development in communities, is a challenge we work on with both the college and our departments of ITI and municipal and community affairs.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Similar to our colleagues from Nunavut, the government itself has funding programs, high-risk capital that they put on the table, and they work with people to do business plans. We have business development officers in the communities. We work on the arts and crafts side.

Natural Resources committee  We have written to the minister just to seek clarification. When we first heard about the changes, issues were raised by officials, by our own experts, so the Fisheries Act combined with the streamlining and efficiencies. We're all in favour of being efficient and being timely. We just want to be reassured that thoroughness is not going to be sacrificed and that we can in fact do the job that our constituents expect of us.

Natural Resources committee  We are concerned to see what the impacts are going to be of those decisions. In the north, we're working hard to make sure that we maintain our ability to be as thorough as we have to be to provide reassurance and comfort to all parties, but the full implications and impact of all the recent decisions have yet to be felt.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very quickly, in the Northwest Territories we are very focused on first trying to get children to stay in school and to graduate. We have as well, with industry over the years, developed very productive working relationships with the government and with the colleges to look at training—apprenticeship training, pre-employment training, mine processing training.

Natural Resources committee  The concern for our government, of course, is tied to devolution and timeliness. We know that where we see the constraints, we recognize that the federal government is moving on regulatory reform. We see, as I've indicated, regulatory reform as being tied to devolution. Once northerners can have control, and the decisions are made in the north...

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. We're of the opinion that there is a need for two things. There's a need for a national energy strategy, which has been articulated a number of times. At the same time, you can't look at energy separate from water. There's a need for a national water strategy as well.

Natural Resources committee  Do I just carry on, Mr. Chair?

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we are intent on doing here by this fall is laying out, for example, our energy plan, which is going to capture the initiatives that I discussed this morning in terms of the energy infrastructure, the grid interconnects, the solar strategy, dealing with Inuvik and some of those broad issues that are very critical to the economy.

Natural Resources committee  I think the intent by all parties is to have a good review process to avoid duplication. One of the issues we're struggling with, of course, as all governments are, is the deficit reduction exercises that are under way and the paring back of budgets and programs across government to meet fiscal targets.

Natural Resources committee  Some things can be done that will have an almost immediate impact. For example, in the Northwest Territories we don't even have the authority to appoint our own members to the regulatory boards. It's all done through Ottawa. And there are times when simple things like quorum tie up the processes and the boards getting decisions made, for months on end.

Natural Resources committee  Good morning. If I weren't sitting so far away in Yellowknife, I'd feel somewhat underdressed compared to the rest of you folks, but I'll carry on regardless. The Northwest Territories is a land of enormous wealth—wealth that is seen in the land as it now exists—with enormous portions of boreal forest and water, and ecosystems that are without parallel anywhere in the world.