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.