Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not have that information on whether or not the community was consulted on this capital item. I will take that question as notice.

The question is taken as notice. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, when the territorial committee was being discussed in this House, at that time the Member indicated, in his bid for cabinet, that he had 11 continuous years of experience as a Minister. One of the reasons that he wanted us to consider him was because he had good contacts with the present federal government; he was on a first name basis with the Prime Minister and almost every Member of his Cabinet.

I would like to know, with his contacts that he supposedly said he has, whether or not he has been able to deal with any of the outstanding large amounts of grants in lieu of taxes to the larger municipalities that has been an outstanding dispute for quite some time now.

The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Patterson.

Despite all of my good contacts, Mr. Speaker, no. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, will he be able to provide to this House the total amount of outstanding grants in lieu of taxes throughout the many municipalities across the North, and would he be able to provide it to this House as quickly as possible? Thank you.

Mr. Patterson.

Mr. Speaker, it is about two million dollars, I believe, but I will provide the House with the exact amount as soon as possible. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Knowing that there is a large amount of about two million dollars outstanding to municipalities, can the Minister indicate to this House what type of action, to date, he has taken to address this long-outstanding concern?

The Government Leader would like to respond to this question. Madam Government Leader.

Mr. Speaker, in the matter of outstanding financial issues between the federal government and the Northwest Territories, all the cabinet Ministers are addressing in much detail what is outstanding, to narrow down the issues. We will be proceeding to have a meeting at a very high level in dealing with all the issues that are of a long-outstanding financial concern. When we met with Mr. Mulroney, he gave us that invitation.

Over the last number of years we have been dealing with Ministers relating to the individual departments that are responsible for the various issues. We feel that, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have to put that in a package and address all the outstanding items, including grants in lieu of taxes, with the federal government so that we can resolve those issues as a package. The reason we are taking this approach is because in dealing directly with Ministers on individual issues, we have not been able to make headway in that regard. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, can the Government Leader indicate to this House when she anticipates this meeting will be conducted?

Madam Government Leader.

Mr. Speaker, we hope we can have the meeting arranged within the next six weeks. We felt we would not be able to go as a team because I am not quite sure how we are going to organize ourselves and who should go at this time. There are some talks going on between the Department of Finance and the Government of Canada to see how best we can organize ourselves so that we have a maximum point of contact because these issues are long and outstanding. I would hope that within the next six weeks we will have that meeting arranged.

Oral questions. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister responsible for the Department of Health. The H.H. Williams Memorial Hospital in Hay River has an admissions clerk who is bilingual in French and English. However, there are more Chipewyan and Slavey people than French people going into the hospital. I would like to know why we are catering to such a small minority at the expense of the majority of aboriginal people being admitted to the hospital.

Mr. Whitford, Minister of Health.

The question is taken as notice by the Minister. Oral questions. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister responsible for the Department of Public Works. Mr. Speaker, last year when we were going through the budget, the Minister of Public Works had put forth a motion in this House to delete 5.5 person years from the Fort Smith regional office. I would like to know if the present Minister feels these 5.5 person years should be deleted from that regional office. Thank you.

Minister responsible for Public Works, Mr. Morin.