Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is certainly something that I am aware of. I know that in the past, past Ministers of Justice and department officials have discussed that possibility with federal officials. However, to date, there has been no decision reached to establish such a facility in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, they do have case workers assigned to individual inmates at the Bowden Institute, of course. As I indicated earlier, those are federal inmates, that are not the responsibility of our government, although the fact remains that, we recognize they come from the north, and we would certainly if there were significant problems or concerns raised by them, if we could, we would check into it, and see if there was any way to address some of those issues, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Final supplementary. Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that all Members are aware that health records are maintained by various nursing stations and medical facilities in the NWT. I wonder if the Minister can advise this House, as to what procedures are in place to protect the confidentialities of these records?

The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know the specifics at this time, so I will take the question as notice, and advise the Member, in writing. Thank you.

The question is taken as notice. Oral questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd, on today's digital communications network announcement. I noted within the Minister's comments, he informed the House, that Ardicom Digital Communications Incorporated was the successful proponent. He went on to give us a brief description of the groups that make up this company, Arctic Co-operatives, he gave us some background on that, NASCO, he gave us some background on that one, and the third one being Northwestel, and I noted that there was no background on that particular company. I am just wondering if that is a reflection of the criticism that has been fostered against Northwestel in this House in the last couple of weeks? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Let me see, Mr. Speaker. No, I do not think it is a criticism, although I know a number of Members, and certainly a number of my constituents are certainly concerned about the quality of service that Northwestel provides across the framework. It would be fair to say, that, talking on a personal level, I am concerned about the costs they charge on my bill. However, it certainly was not an intention to avoid, I just thought it was important to...you know Frank Boren used to say in the bureaucrat's handbook, when in doubt, mumble. I thought it was just important to illustrate to this House, and the community at large, that these two large locally-owned organizations were part of the partnership with this telephone company called Northwestel. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the three companies that were mentioned here, could I assume that each of these companies are registered under the present government's Business Incentive Policy? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

The decision to award them the contract did not require any adaptation of the BIP, due to the fact that there was a large disparity on the fiscal side of the proponents that put forward the proposals. I would not want to assume

anything, Mr. Speaker, on whether Ardicom, or Arctic Co-ops are covered under the BIP, but I do want to assure my colleague that the decision to award it to this company, was based on clear, and concise price and service only. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in response to my oral question on ultimate removal, Mr. Todd came back with a response, I would like to follow up with another question on ultimate removal. Is an employee allowed to spend the appropriate percentage of the dollar cap, or is it only reimbursed on a percentage of what is actually spent, even if less than the dollar cap, on ultimate removal? Is that clear?

Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the issue is that if the cap, hypothetically, is $6,000, and an employee spends up to $6,000, and has receipts, we will reimburse him. But if the cap is $6,000, and the employee spends $5,000, and has the receipts, we would reimburse him for $5,000. That is my understanding of it, but I stand to be corrected, because this is a technical question, and if I am incorrect, I will write to my honourable colleague in Iqaluit, later on next week. Thank you.