Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Member is correct; I fundamentally believe that the industry should be represented by those who are in it. We recently provided some funding to the industry, in terms of east and west, in an effort to try to reach an appropriate compromise as to how the new Western Arctic Tourism Association would function. I don't think these discussions have been concluded. I think they're still under way at the present time.

I've made it clear to the current NWTTIA that the way it's structured is unsatisfactory, that there has to be significant involvement of the industry and, to some extent, aboriginal groups because of the parks and claims, et cetera. I haven't had a definitive response from the west at this time as to how they see the new association being structured. I do have a

letter from them indicating some basic framework as to where they want to go. The officials of the department will be meeting with them shortly to see where we agree and disagree. Hopefully, in the next 30 to 60 days, we can come to some arrangement that will allow us to fund those two associations, east and west.

Ultimately, what I've said in the House and I'll say it again for the record, once an arrangement has been reached, we're also prepared to transfer to these organizations, April 1, 1996 if we can conclude an arrangement, the marketing dollars that we have available, the 1-800 number money we have available, the explorer magazine we have available. Based upon whatever formula we determine in terms of the split of dollars, we would turn that money over to an association which would hopefully be representative of and meet the needs of the industry.

So it's our intent to go further in the next six to eight months, and I'm optimistic that we can make an arrangement with both associations that are currently having discussions with their membership right now. Thank you.