Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister about the concerns raised by the Standing Committee on Finance, mainly on the negotiated contracts policy. There was a draft policy that we understand was developed and may be ready after March. The committee had expressed that they were disappointed that it was taking this long. I would like to ask the Minister about the status of this draft policy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This draft policy is one of the many things this department does and we have worked on many things during the past year. It is in the system, it is waiting now for Ministers' signatures which should happen, possibly, next week. It will be going to Cabinet during the week of the 24th to the 28th. If it gets approved, I will bring it to the House.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On April 1, 1995, the vehicle pool in Yellowknife was privatized. Departments will have to meet their vehicle needs by going to the private sector. There are people in the community who have businesses that rent vehicles. If you want one, you can go rent it. If you can justify it, you can go and buy one through your budget. That's how it will be done. Thank you.

What will happen to the existing vehicle pool that the government has? It is past April 1st, so I take it that this is in force right now. I would like to know what happens to all the vehicles the government has in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some of the vehicles have been reallocated to other regions, instead of buying new ones; some we have dropped the insurance and plates of and they are sitting, waiting to be disposed of. There are different disposal methods including public tender, some clubs might need them, things like that. As of April 1st, there are no vehicles available through the pool. Thank you.

The final concern I would like to express during general comments concerns the business incentive policy. We've been through this numerous times and, from the comments the Minister made to us here today, public consultation on the BIP started in November 1994 and at the end of February 1995, they completed the first round of public hearings. He also said that proposals have been developed for presentation to Cabinet and another part of the process is that they will go back to the business community and the public to get comments on the proposal before the policy is finalized.

I would like to ask the Minister if he could elaborate further on the BIP and tell us the time frame we're looking at before we see a final product. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Members know, the business incentive policy has been in place for some years. It was basically designed to help develop business in the Northwest Territories. It wasn't necessarily a policy to generate jobs in the communities. Some of us were a bit naive, I guess, in saying that if we develop the business incentive policy to develop northern business, those northern businesses would hire northern people.

That's not quite true. We did develop northern businesses but they hired southern people; not all, but some. The concern in 1994-95 is we want to make sure that the dollars we spend in the Northwest Territories are spent not only on northern businesses, but that they generate jobs in the communities for local, northern people. That's what we're attempting to do now, through the business incentive policy. We have gone to consultations with businesses and interested groups and have the documentation back. It is in its final draft. Hopefully, I'll get it within a week. I will then take it to Cabinet and then it will go back out to the business community. We'll have it in this House when we come back on June 5th, it will be final by then. Thank you.

That was the final comment I wanted to make on the Minister's opening remarks but I have a couple of other concerns. They have to do with constituency matters. One of them, again, is the telephone services that the people in Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake and Jean Marie have right now.

During the official opening of the community hall in Nahanni Butte, the Honourable Don Morin and John Pollard were in Nahanni Butte at that time. Mr. Pollard was receiving an important call from Ottawa for additional funds for the government and he was asked if a fax could be sent to him to sign it, so that this government could receive additional money. But, unfortunately, in Nahanni Butte there is only one telephone and no fax line, so that did not happen. That is a good example for the Minister; to see the problems that the people in the communities have in the lack of modern telecommunication systems. I don't know whether the government lost out on a couple million dollars from this situation, but the point is that type of service is required in the communities. Communities have been asking for it for some time now.

I just wanted to state that there is a business in Fort Simpson called Senga Services, that has been talking about doing another type of communication system for the smaller communities. They are not using the satellite system. It is a different type of system where the fax, telephone, and modem connect into the communities. They have done that in Jean Marie River. Just last week, the community enjoyed that for a couple of weeks, but the trial period is over.

The company has a system that could work in the communities. I was wondering if the Department of Public Works and Services have had any discussions with the business in Simpson that is doing it. If so, I would like to get some comments from the department on what their analysis of that system is or if that system is adequate and satisfactory to the people there. If this system that we are trying to get through NorthwesTel is going to be time consuming, it would be good to use another type of system such as the one that I just described. I am not too familiar with it, I don't know the details of it, but it seems to work.

NorthwesTel wants to put in a system that costs a substantial amount of money. The system that I am referring to does not take those kinds of funds. I don't know what the quality of the service is, but I am told that there is a fax line, modems and additional telephones that people in the communities could enjoy. If I could get some feedback from the department on this, I would appreciate it at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I received a fax from Fort Simpson this morning. I have forwarded it to the department to investigate this new system Mr. Antoine was speaking about.

We have also received some information from a company called Northern Communications, Mr. Pook, I have met with them and I have instructed the department to meet with them to explore those opportunities as well.

I met with NorthwesTel today and I haven't had a chance to brief Members on it, so I will do that now. I met with four people and we were looking at negotiating with them for supplying the actual dish into the communities, fax machines, computer services for the schools, everything that is needed for communications for advanced education, as well as fax and individual telephones. We are negotiating with them and we should be finished negotiations no later than June. We are negotiating with the attempt to install telephone services into Colville Lake, Trout Lake and Snare Lake this summer; and Nahanni Butte, Kakisa, and Jean Marie River next year.

That is what we are negotiating right now with NorthwesTel. So far we are finding that the negotiations are going very well. I will keep Members up to date if anything evolves from that.

It is good to hear that something is finally happening that will be beneficial to these communities. It would be good to be kept up to date on this because every time that I travel into these communities -- which I will be doing soon, after this session is over -- it's one of the first concerns that people raise; what is going on with the telephone and fax systems.

It will really come in handy for the smaller communities because nowadays everyone uses a fax. Whenever you write a letter you fax it and everybody gets it instantly. There they have to wait for their mail and they don't have a regular mail system into the small communities. They have to depend on when the next charter is going into the communities, it could be a few days, it could be a week or 10 days. Their communication system is very bad, it is very poor.

Nowadays there is instant communication and it would really help. One of the examples is that whenever a Minister goes into a small community -- especially Finance -- there might be a situation like the one I described with Mr. Pollard, where he wanted to use a fax but there wasn't one, and it might cause some problems that way.

I want to move on to another concern I have in Fort Simpson. The village of Fort Simpson was told last fall that they had to pay quite a substantial amount of money for heating the recreation complex. Originally there was a steam plant that provides heat to the school, Deh Cho hall, and the Bompas hall. There was a study done and they were saying that there was excess heat wasted there. So when the recreation complex was built there was an extension built to provide steam heat to the recreation centre.

The recreation complex used this system. They put in the real complex system for heating with pipes and values and all kinds of bells and whistles. It cost a substantial amount of money to put this whole system in there, to make use of the excess steam heat. But last year, the department had informed the village that they had to pay a large amount of money for the heat. The village did not anticipate that and, therefore, did not budget for it. There was a concern that was raised to me about that.

I would like to ask the Minister if he is aware of this situation. And I would like to know if the department has met with the village on this point? And if so, what was the result of that meeting? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On July 10, 1987, the village of Fort Simpson confirmed their decision to connect to the GNWT central heating plant, with an understanding that the cost of heat would be the responsibility of the village. On July 15, 1987 the GNWT responded positively to the village's request and the complex was connected to the central heating plant, but that no agreement for billing costs was completed.

In June 1994, the village of Fort Simpson was approached by the GNWT to finalize an agreement on heating costs. The village expressed concern over the cost of heating and the department is currently negotiating with the village to establish the rates. The proposed revenue is $50,000, while the estimated actual cost of the heat is $100,000. The village received a contract for heating costs in November 1994. The annual rate of $50,000 has been established for the first year to allow time to test and meter in the system. The village is negotiating with the Deh Cho Regional Divisional Board of Education and MACA for the funding for the arena. The contract has not yet been signed.

We are still in negotiations with the village and we'll deal with it accordingly and with an open mind. We'll try our best to solve this issue as soon as possible. We are still in negotiations and that's where it stands right now. MACA is involved as well, to make sure that all the bills are paid or whatever.