Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a brief meeting with my deputy minister and my assistant deputy minister. We agreed that this facility should be deferred. Mr. Speaker, even a politician has the right to make a mistake once in a while. Maybe that was my mistake when I said it was confirmed by the cabinet. Actually it was my officials and I, and we talked about this in my office on the sixth floor in the Renewable Resources' office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I conferred with my colleague here -- I guess it was confirmed by the FMB. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The project is deferred until we have enough money to build the facility. Thank you.

Oral questions. You have completed your supplementaries, Mr. Zoe. Oral questions. Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a question to the Government Leader. It is in relation to the remarks that were made earlier about regional negotiations. I am curious, Mr. Speaker, as to how the present policy of government, which primarily deals with the matters of community self-government on the basis of individual communities, does not consider the agreement that was reached between the Gwich'in and the federal government that allows the Gwich'in to negotiate directly with the federal government on a regional basis. I want to know how government policy is, in fact, going to reflect the final agreement between the Government of Canada and the Gwich'in.

Madam Government Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot predetermine how those talks are going to be. I know that the discussions at the community level have not begun yet. I know that the Gwich'in are very interested in it, and we have said that we are committed to talking with them. I cannot predetermine that at some point in time these will be areas we have to respect. If someone has a provision in the claim, then we have to honour that provision. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Arngna'naaq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on the questions that were raised by Mr. Arvaluk and Mr. Nerysoo, to the Government Leader. In response to a question that was asked by Mr. Arvaluk, the Government Leader implied that there will be a blueprint, in a manner of speaking, created for the implementation of Strength at Two Levels. I would like to ask if the Members who were chosen by the ordinary Members here to be a part of the implementation committee, whether they could be involved in that process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Madam Government Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if my English is very good or maybe I am not making myself very clear, and I apologize for that. The documents that I have tabled are a process outline and talk about the various tasks that have to be accomplished. The implementation of those tasks will fit into the process, and this is where the

committee comes into play, to try to take on those tasks that have been identified. How you break it out in the end -- that will be an ongoing job, and yes, you will be involved and the committee will be involved in the implementation. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask a question to the Government Leader. On December 16th the ordinary Members put forth a motion requesting that the government consider three ordinary Members to participate in the strategy committee for implementing the Strength at Two Levels report. I would like to quote Mr. Pollard's response at that time:

"Mr. Speaker, I think we would like to point out to the House that any changes we may make in government structure would ultimately have to pass through the standing committee on legislation, the standing committee on finance or the standing committee on agencies, boards and commissions, or all three of these committees. Mr. Speaker, ordinary Members will be consulted through the process even though the House may not be sitting. Mr. Speaker, we will commit to involve ordinary Members in reviewing the path that we may follow with Strength at Two Levels. We are unable, though, to go as far as to say that three Members from the other side could join us at cabinet meetings. However, you have our commitment, Mr. Speaker, that ordinary Members will be involved. Thank you very much."

I would like to ask the Government Leader, when were the ordinary Members involved in formulating this document, Reshaping Northern Government?

Government Leader, Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, we have not done anything yet. I will say what I said before. We have not implemented anything. What we have done is identified tasks, looked at areas from the recommendations and the jobs that would have to be done. We have not talked to communities. Some of the communities have expressed interest in discussion on community self-government, which would have been happening anyway.

The fact is that we have not implemented, and committee will be helping to look at how we are going to take on these tasks. We have identified certain areas that could have a little more priority than others, areas of concern, and this is where the committee will be involved, in carrying that out. But at the same time, those changes and processes will be in the normal planning process of this government, as it will sometimes mean that maybe other programs will be able to be funded, because if we tighten up maybe we will have money for other things.

So all these things go through the normal process. But the day-to-day and ongoing issue of how we carry out those tasks -- we have not done anything at this time, other than to set up the process and the area of where and how we can possibly approach those.

Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Government Leader, why were the three ordinary MLAs chosen to be on the implementation team not consulted while developing the tasks for producing the document, Reshaping Northern Government?

Ms. Cournoyea.