Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding the Minister did make an attempt to get a hold of the Honourable Member before the situation had come to a conclusion. Mr. Speaker, this particular issue that arose in Iqaluit has been a long outstanding issue. We have been dealing with this particular concern involving the community and the organization of the community for over two years and if we did neglect, I sincerely apologize on behalf of the Minister and also apologize on behalf of myself as Government Leader that we did not make that special effort or more effort to consult with the Member. However, I am aware that the Member was fully up to date on the issues that finally brought us to this conclusion. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Marie-Jewell.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize the Government Leader has apologized for the process used but it's been done and I'm sure apologies would be accepted. But we're trying to address this issue so that it doesn't happen again in the future. I'd like to ask the Government Leader whether or not protocol at the very least, or a process is in place whereby Ministers are to advise Members of the

Legislative Assembly of major decisions which affect their constituencies.

Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that over the last couple of years we've been very diligent in attempting to reach the objective of consulting with MLAs in matters that arise in this category. Like the ordinary Member has suggested, this is an area on this particular occasion which was overlooked and the apology can't undo the matter. However, in the last couple of days since it happened, we are looking specifically at how we can develop a more formal protocol so it will not happen again. Thank you.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Lewis.

Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's been a long-standing relationship between the Standing Committee on Finance and the Minister of Finance of the day that major developments would be passed on to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance and hence on to the Members of the Standing Committee on Finance. If there were something large enough that I felt that it was necessary to advise all MLAs, then I would certainly do that. But normally I pass information to the Standing Committee on Finance. Mr. Speaker, thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister of Finance met yesterday with the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and I saw them gathering in a room in this wonderful new facility of ours. So I'd like to ask the Minister then, on the basis of those financial discussions that he had with the Minister of DIAND, did he get in touch with the committee responsible for finance so that they would know exactly what happened at that meeting?

Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, the meeting that I was at with Mr. Irwin yesterday afternoon, after the session, was actually a public affair. It was to sign an agreement with Mr. Irwin on behalf of the federal government and myself on behalf of the territorial government, with regard to a new agreement between us on physicians billings. And obviously once those documents have all been processed, I will advise the Standing Committee on Finance that we have reached an agreement in this particular area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister of Finance, on the basis of discussions he had with the Minister of DIAND, he then proceeded to discuss the billing issue with the media and I happened to be fortunate enough yesterday morning to hear this information on the radio, because, as I mentioned, I do get some of my information from the radio. So I'd like to ask the Minister, is that the way then that he intends to inform MLAs about what he's agreed to do with the current Minister of the federal government?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, my position with regard to the health billings agreement has not changed since the time that I informed this House that we were going to take it to the federal court. I have said, on a number of occasions, publicly and in this House that it would be my preference to negotiate this issue through our lawyers with the federal government. Yesterday, we were fortunate enough that Mr. Irwin agreed in a meeting in the morning that the way to resolve this issue would be to instruct our lawyers to negotiate the issue. That is merely a culmination of the goal I have been trying to reach for the past year, Mr. Speaker. I didn't feel I was making any radical new change in the way we were going to deal with this issue. I was merely saying let's be thankful that the federal government is prepared to accept our argument in this respect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

My question to the Minister of Finance is a very simple one. Could he explain to ordinary Members how we are supposed to know what has been agreed on, in terms of negotiating the total amount of money we figure the federal government actually owes us? The only information I received was from the radio yesterday. I never got it from anyone else. It would be very embarrassing to me if I missed that broadcast and got nailed by a constituent on the way to work, which is very often the case, and he would ask me what exactly is this $79 million? I would not have known that there had been an

agreement to negotiate. My last information was it was a court case. So could the Minister explain to me exactly how that information was given to ordinary Members?

Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, the House was advised by me when I tabled the court documents in this House last year. That was done to advise the House that we were taking this issue to court. I advised the House at that time that this was a matter of contract law. That we were taking the federal government to court because they had not honoured what we felt was an agreement. Since that time, as I have said before, I have said to numerous federal Ministers that I would negotiate this through our lawyers. It was not my preference to have this eventually end up in court. I have said it to Mr. Siddon, Mr. Mazankowski, Ms. Pauline Browes and I have said it publicly.

Yesterday, events were moving very quickly. We found out yesterday morning that this Minister was prepared to advise his lawyer to negotiate on their behalf, if we were prepared to do the same. We agreed immediately. We have not taken this issue out of court. It still remains in the federal court system and we will try to get an out-of-court settlement. The issue was moving very quickly yesterday and we took advantage of the fact that Mr. Irwin is prepared to say publicly that he would instruct his lawyers to negotiate with our lawyers. My apologies if we have not gotten the information out fast enough, but it has always been our position that we would like to negotiate this thing out and we just saw that as a culmination of our goal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 5, oral questions. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs about my statement today. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if he was aware of my letter sent to the Minister of Finance about the financial situation of the town of Iqaluit? Was he aware of my keen interest in that situation? Was he aware of my efforts to promote a resolution of that financial situation? Was he aware that I was very anxious, was asking his office and his officials, on a frequent basis, what was going on? Was he aware of that, Mr. Speaker?