Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi. I have always been an advocate of using plain and simple language, so people can read, understand and digest information. What is the department doing to provide people in the communities the knowledge of what is in this strategy?

Minister of Education, Mr. Nerysoo.

Madam Speaker, what we are doing is trying to advise the CECs and the boards of what is contained in the document. We are also trying to involve them in the development of the Education Act, which is a key component in the implementation of the strategy.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife North, Mr. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I have a question for the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. Madam Speaker, I seem to have a bit of a problem here. I asked the Minister responsible a written question asking for the simple increased cost of a 22 per cent surcharge to Royal Oak and Con. For some reason, whoever

answered the question didn't quite understand my question, so I didn't really get a response back.

Then I asked an oral question and three supplementary questions asking the same question and the Minister said at first that it was in front of the Public Utilities Board and then her last response was, she didn't know. But that is the reason, Madam Speaker, why I asked the written question in the first place, because I didn't think she would know. So, we're right back to where we started from.

So, I will try again. I understand the Minister's embarrassment in answering this question. I would be embarrassed too, because the numbers probably are quite hefty. My question to the Minister is, would the Minister agree that the cost to Royal Oak and to Miramar would be 22 per cent more than what they are paying presently?

Thank you. Mr. Ballantyne, I am having a problem with the way the question is posed, maybe because that issue is in front of the PUB and the decision has not yet been made. You may attempt to rephrase your question. Mr. Ballantyne.

Certainly, Madam Speaker, I've made numerous attempts to rephrase this question. I will do it a different way altogether then. I will assume, Madam Speaker, that it is 22 per cent more than the present costs and I'll ask, as a Member of a Legislative Assembly that actually owns the Power Corporation, if the Minister could make available to me the present costs paid by Miramar and Royal Oak for power. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you. Minister responsible for the Power Corporation, Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, yes, I'll do that.

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Amittuq, Mr. Allooloo.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister for DPW a question. He made a really good statement about the BIP. I am reading from the unedited Hansard of October 19, 1994. He says that in order to be a Northwest Territories resident, you have to be in the Northwest Territories for one year. In order to get a local contract, you have to be in a community for six months. The addresses of employees and also T-22 tax forms are required as proof of income tax paid in the Northwest Territories. Also, the government would be able to remove business incentive policy benefits from companies who don't obey the policy. I wonder, when is the government going to change their policy to suit what the Minister said on October 19th. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I've directed the president of the Housing Corporation as well as the deputy minister of DPW to amend all existing contracts we have out there right now for clarification of northern residence. Before, what was acceptable to get the business incentive policy for northern and local work was an NWT health card. What we've done is increased that to a driver's licence as well as a tax return and the address of where the employee lives.

We will be amending all our contracts for next year; so, if you do not hire local people like you said you were going to in the contract, then we will have the opportunity to either pull the contract from you, pull the BIP from you, or else cancel the contract immediately. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you. Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Good afternoon. Madam Speaker, the federal government had some problems putting this tax into place simply because of the system they were using. They are registered and on stream now. The Dene Nation refused on the grounds that they were not to be included because of treaty arrangements. They have an issue before the federal government that I agreed to take a look at before insisting that they pay.

Those are the ones I know about that we've had problems with registering or paying, Madam Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The issue related to the Dene Nation, since it's not an issue before the courts, I would like to ask the Minister on what specific legal grounds had the Dene Nation argued that they should not pay taxes?

Thank you. Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Madam Speaker, representation was made to me by Chief Erasmus that, because of a treaty, he had made representation to the federal government and the federal government was looking at a remission order with regard to taxes. Because what Mr. Erasmus told me was true, I said I would wait until we had received word from the Minister of Indian Affairs with regard to how they were going to rule on that issue.

As soon as the letter came from Mr. Irwin that said that he was not going to issue a remission order, or that there was not going to be forgiveness of taxes, I proceeded to tell Mr. Erasmus that he must now comply with the Legislative Assembly law that there should be a payroll tax in the Northwest Territories.

Supplementary, Mr. Lewis.

Taxation obviously poses problems in the Northwest Territories and maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Since governments depend on taxes for revenue to provide its programs, I would like to ask the Minister, is that one of the reasons why we are looking to alternatives to taxes for the provision of services in the Northwest Territories, as referred to earlier when the Premier responded to my question about the proposal to look at alternative tax systems for providing schools and so on?