Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The idea of hiring consultants is so that the Department of Public Works staff is not doing the consulting; they're there as technical support people. An independent consultant who does not work for the department as an employee would be consulting with the people in the regions. That's how it is to be set up. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm not saying that this would happen or the Department of Public Works civil servants would do this, but in some cases when people develop a paper they become possessive of it. Or when they're supposed to be going out to consult, they go out to defend the paper. That's not the case, I did not want that to happen. In this case, the Department of Public Works drafted a new business incentive policy. It's clearly by my direction that it goes out to consultation in draft form so that we can get the good ideas of the business people out there and the community groups, and implement that in a new draft. The best way to do that is to have an independent consultant to facilitate in the communities. We will be going to request for proposals for regional facilitators. That will appear in the newspapers in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure they will have business licences and all the instruments involved in running that type of business.

It will clearly be an independent process, with technical help from DPW so that we can document the good recommendations from the communities and the regions. Thank you.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Whitford.

Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We will ensure that all businesses, small or big, will have an opportunity to respond to the draft business incentive policy. Many have gone out in the mail already, I believe, to the communities and the regions so they have the document ahead of time. I'm looking forward to hearing from them so we draft a business incentive policy that will be simple but yet will close the loopholes there now that allow southern businesses to take advantage of the policy. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am informed that Mr. Cooper declined to be involved in the selection of the 1998 AWG host community because Mr. Cooper is legal counsel for both the city of Yellowknife and the town of Inuvik. He felt there was a conflict of interest and a situation might arise. That was his reason.

Mr. Ian Legaree also declined to be involved in the selection because in his role as a member of the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, Mr. Legaree strongly supported and promoted the concept of moving the games into smaller NWT communities. And, also as a director of sports and recreation for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Legaree works closely with both communities. He felt support for one would damage his working relationship with the other. So that was another conflict situation which arose. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister whether the decision was made on the spur of the moment, or did they think down the road five years to 1998, when the Arctic Winter Games are to be held, and didn't expect the town of Inuvik to meet up to the obligations of hosting the games.

Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would love to answer the Member's question. But, as a result of the absence in that selection of our representatives, I cannot respond to his question. Thank you.

Item 6, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Gargan.

I didn't hear why she couldn't respond to my question. I know the decision was made because they said Inuvik was too small. I wanted to ask the Minister if it is because they just didn't think that five years down the road Inuvik could meet up to its obligations to hold it.

Thank you. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. What I was saying is that, because we didn't have representatives in that selection, sitting there and participating during that process, I cannot respond to the Member's question. I would just be speculating as to how the selection was arrived at. Thank you.