Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as the people of Nunavut will be in control of their own affairs after April 1, 1999, and even leading up to it, we are aware that they are not fully prepared to take on all aspects of providing programs and services which they will eventually be doing. We are aware that there are going to be programs and services that arrangements will be made between the Western Territory and Nunavut, and the Western Territory will continue to provide those programs and services. There has to be some arrangements made between the two territories to provide that service. There are going to be costs involved and we will continue to provide those programs and services to Nunavut. That arrangement is already being worked on, it is in place. I will honour that arrangement as it gets into place.
Again, I will have to familiarize myself with that whole arrangement and work with the people in Nunavut, the MLAs here, and certainly would like to meet with the Office of the Interim Commissioner and see if there is any way that we could develop a closer working relationship where the lines of communication will open. If there are any problems that arise during the transition through this communication process, we would try to address these problems. I think in this way, hopefully that will build a good working relationship and that there is trust there and we would certainly like to cooperate with them. I have supported Nunavut when the decision was made some time ago to go that route, for division. I continue to do so today and I think the reality is, we will be neighbours. There needs to be a close working relationship even after division.
We work closely with the Yukon, we have similar problems, we have been working with the provinces, mainly in Alberta. We deal with the northern part of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well, today. Similar to that, Nunavut will be our neighbours to the east and we will have to continue to have a close working relationship with Nunavut after the creation of Nunavut. Thank you.