Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are. We have identified $21 million over the next three years, and we’ll be, as well, investing in the housing market in the communities, so our expectation is we will have approximately 178 new houses in the small communities that are predominantly identified for decentralized positions. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today to attend the Canada Northwest FASD Partnership Ministers’ meetings in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, over the last few days, the future of energy and the approach of the Government of the Northwest Territories to energy in the Northwest Territories has been explored, deliberated and discussed at length.

The 2014 Northwest Territories Energy Charrette has generated a great deal of interest throughout our territory and beyond. Over 120 people participated in the entire charrette and there were many more who attended the public discussion held on Monday, November 3rd.

We had representatives from communities and Aboriginal governments from every region of the territory and attracted...

I think it’s a very exciting period as to what’s happening in Inuvik, especially with the satellite tracking facilities that have been put in place. I think there are three satellite tracking facilities there now. When I attended the first one, we were told that with this fibre optic link that conceivably there could be 35 of these facilities, because Inuvik’s got the best location in the world for tracking of satellites. The Aurora Research Institute has been a very active participant and promoting this, and as part of construction of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, we see the research...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to recognize a constituent of Yellowknife South, Gayla Thunstrom. Welcome to the Assembly.

We have a number of international researchers that set up and operate right in the Aurora Research Institute. We also provide a lot of logistical and backup and equipment support. As I said, the Aurora Research Institute receives funding from the Department of Education for annual operations, and they also access funding on an application-based process. We do involve and utilize them to do research on behalf of the government, and certainly, with the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link, I understand that we will do further investing in that regard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a very exciting year to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik. Considering that they’ve been conducting research or helping facilitate research for 50 years in the Northwest Territories is quite an achievement.

I’m very pleased to say that through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that Aurora College is allocating $1,000 for every year of its existence, so they’ve allocated $50,000 for the 50th anniversary celebrations.

I should add that Aurora College provides the institute with about $1.7 million a year...

We receive results on a regular and ongoing basis. They are channelled through the Aurora College and through the Department of Education, and it finds our way to us. I myself, I think I’ve been to Inuvik about 10 times this year. On almost every visit I have the opportunity to drop in to the Aurora Research Institute for one reason or another, and at the risk of indicating how old I am, I negotiated devolution of the three arctic research centres from the federal government to the territorial government about 25 years ago. I think we have really benefitted from it.

Thank you. You can rest assured that any project, if it were ever to come to fruition, would have to go through a very rigorous regulatory process that we have in the Northwest Territories, that would identify issues or conditions that would have to be approved. We’re very interested in moving to the next step to determine the economics of such a possibility and whether it is not only technically feasible or technically possible but that it’s economically feasible. So that’s where we’re looking to move to, is move on to the next step. Thank you.

What we’ve been discussing is the need for an energy cooperation agreement. There are significant numbers of transboundary issues involved with energy. Not only energy, but water, transportation, tourism, medical health care, what have you, and in almost every instance we are very intertwined with Alberta.

When it comes to energy specifically, we are all part of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, and I don’t know if you need another history lesson in that regard or not, but we have very similar issues when it comes to developing our stranded resources. If we don’t have transportation routes...