Thank you. Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. For all our travel representing the government, we consider all avenues of travel, the time frame we have to travel and the most cost-effective way. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. What type of activities took place in these countries besides the official opening of a new village in Yakutia, Russia?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, at some point in time, when the honourable Member has an opportunity to travel to Russia, I invite him to experience some of the ways the Russians do business. I know many times in Canada, the Northwest Territories people get upset about the government, how they do business and how many meetings you have to go to, but let me tell you when you go to Russia, even the very smallest decision they have to make, there is a multitude of meetings that start first thing in the morning and go through many social functions and right into the evening. So I would say we had about three different meetings. One meeting was in relationship to a further contract that Ferguson Simek Clark were attempting to finalize on the airport terminal building, which they got. So we had some meetings in that area. We had some meetings with the sub-government groups that are in the decision-making process. So there were several small meetings during the time we were there.

I was pleased that we finally concluded the village. I have been involved with that enterprise with Ferguson Simek Clark for several years along with the Department of Public Works. The steps you have to take to even get there are horrendous and I am glad that it finally reached its end. For the next trip, I would like to have someone else take that marvellous opportunity. Thank you.

---Laughter

---Applause

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Ng.

If the government wishes to pick up the cost of it, I will certainly consider it in the future. I would like to ask a final question. Is there a policy that the government has or a protocol that it has related to on how they support private business ventures that are wishing to do business internationally? Thank you.

Madam Speaker, we don't have a policy on how that is done. The particular enterprise came out of -- particularly with the Russian venture -- many years of cross-cultural exchanges. There was an opportunity. Business doesn't occur like it does in the Northwest Territories or Canada or anywhere else in the world because you have to go through a lot of government agencies who are part of the system on how to conduct business in the USSR, so it is very complicated. I tried to learn as best as I could how to get through that maze. It took a lot of time and there have been a lot of changes in that particular state of union. But, at that particular time, this came out of the government exchange programs that had existed over a number of years, and there was no other way where decisions could be made to finally narrow and nail down a deal without using government protocol. We were requested by this Northwest Territories company to assist them in trying to get the decisions made as required. So it was done as a one-time effort, and as for other requests that have come, to my knowledge, they have generally been responded to at the request of specific groups who need to have some type of political protocol to get the attention of another jurisdiction. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Whitford.