That was two questions, Mr. Ballantyne. Minister of Finance, Mr. Pollard.

Mr. Speaker, we were not there to specifically discuss the incremental funding required for the division of the Northwest Territories, although it did come up by way of the next formula funding agreement expiring in time for it to divide and become two and fund both territories. So it only came up in that respect, but the last time I asked this question on incremental funding they said they had not done their projections out that far.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly Special Joint Committee on Division, I have seen some correspondence from the federal government on the whole area of costing. From the very beginning when we started this process with the federal government, it was quite firm that they would maintain the same level of programming.

The correspondence coming from the federal government now has qualifiers, such as "depending on financial realities," et cetera, et cetera. So I see the commitment softening and I think it is very important that we jump in now and jump in hard, because it seems to me that nobody in Ottawa is really paying a lot of attention to some of the fiscal realities of division. Could I ask, from the Minister of Finance, for a commitment that he will consider this a very important issue and will push this issue very firmly that we need some full commitments on funding for the two new territories post 1999. Thank you.

Mr. Pollard.

I will make that commitment, Mr. Speaker, yes. Thank you.