Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's certainly an honour for me to return to the aboriginal affairs and northern development committee. I served here a number of years ago. We had an opportunity to go into the territories to look at some of the barriers to development in the north when we did a study there, and of course we had a chance to speak with a lot of different aboriginal leaders.
In regard to one of the things in the deck that was given out, page 8 shows that we have 57 new aboriginal companies that have been created in the last 15 years. I think one of the things that we want to talk about are the opportunities that exist, not only for the large mining companies and for oil and gas exploration but also for local individual groups throughout the north. I know that I certainly appreciated that, and in some of the discussions we had with individuals, I met some amazing aboriginals that...quite frankly, when I came back down to the south, I said that if you want to find some CEOs to run your companies, those are the people, because they understand the types of things that are needed. I'm sure that many of them are working in these 57 companies that we've spoken of here.
My background is in education. One of the key aspects is the training. It's the aspect that is significant there. I know that various companies have looked at different training models. That's one of the issues I want to talk about. Also, earlier, Mr. Regan mentioned the size of the Northwest Territories. When my family came, the Northwest Territories was much larger. That was in 1903, so area-wise there are some changes that have taken place.
I'd like to acknowledge the contributions of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to regulatory improvement, including those we studied when we looked at Neil McCrank's study of regulatory regimes in the north. In CAPP's submission to Mr. McCrank, it suggested that the boards in the Mackenzie Valley be consolidated, which is, as you know, a feature of this bill.
Could you speak to how this proposed approach, along with others such as the time limits, can enhance the investment climate in the Northwest Territories?