Jane Groenewegen

Page 11-21, Transportation, activity summary, highways, operations expenditure summary, $64.766 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I’ll be interested in monitoring how that goes, that agreement, that commitment that the Minister is talking about, because I have already started to hear rumblings, some very strange rumblings with regard to the commitment to the socio-economic agreement.

I would like to ask the Minister, when he talks about commitment, is that something that is in writing? Because you understand that when you’re trying to open a mine, you’re going to be making a lot of commitments to the folks you’re dealing with because that’s when we’ve got more leverage. I’d like to ask the...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Glad we could help you out with that. Mr. Dolynny.

Of course, because of the importance of diamond mining in the Northwest Territories to our NWT economy, I am sure we all wish them well. When the Minister says he had a meeting with them, I have a question about what our government is saying with regard to the socio-economic agreements that were put in place with the original companies. How does that work? When we have those agreements, the mine’s up and running, we don’t have the same kind of leverage. Now we’re talking about changing hands from one owner to another.

How is the interest of the northern content, and northern employment and...

Agreed, thank you. Page 11-18, Transportation, activity summary, airports, grants and contributions, contributions, $30,000.

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Mr. Neudorf.

That’s what I wanted to hear and I’ll look forward to working on this with the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Ramsay.