Mr. Speaker, if we go way back to the First Ministers' conference, the very first one which was late last year, I believe. Our Premier raised with the Prime Minister and the rest of the First Ministers the importance of infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. We have a document, the transportation strategy in the Northwest Territories. That transportation strategy is the Bible that is used primarily by the Department of Transportation. I am sure that at times there are some changes made to accommodate other schedules but generally by and large that is the document that it is stuck with. I think it is important to point out that the Premier has made that known to the Prime Minister and the other First Ministers.

Over the past year there have been several proposals put out by the federal government. The first one was to increase the price of gasoline by four cents a litre and that kind of fell by the wayside, but it was a suggestion that was flying around there saying if we did that and took those taxes and put them into transportation or infrastructure development that would create a lot of jobs and get some highways built where they are currently not being built. Now we are hearing all kinds of things coming out of Ottawa as Mr. Nerysoo asked me earlier with regards to job training. I do not think the federal government in this anticipated spending has everything nailed down. Certainly the position of this government is that we have a transportation strategy for the Northwest Territories. If we get dollars given to us from Ottawa we would like to use those dollars in the best way they can be used in the Northwest Territories which sort of fits in with that transportation strategy. It has been explained to federal Ministers and provincial Ministers on a number of occasions that they talk about roads and bridges. In the Northwest Territories we talk about needing some roads, some wharves, some docking spaces and airports. That is our transportation strategy because it is such a vast country and there are not a lot of roads up here at the present time.

If I could clear up some of the confusion about when we go to the table. The latest proposal we were talking about from the federal government to the provinces and territories was a formula. So you did not have to go there and say I am going to build this airport or dig this hole for a dock, or I am going to build this wharf, they were saying based on your previous year's spending we would be prepared to match those dollars. I think what our Minister would be looking for is the flexibility with the money that would be provided by the federal government to do something that we need to be done in the Northwest Territories. Not just a strip of road from A to B, maybe a new road. Are we interested in getting some federal money? Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is no question about it. Will we fight for it diligently? We have been doing that for the past year. Our position is well known in Ottawa that we require infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, transportation infrastructure of all kinds. Are we going to rush in and sign a foolish deal with the federal government whereby they could back out five years down the road and leave us holding the bag again? No, Mr. Speaker, no.