Madam Chair, I have a question...If the program has been going on for five years, why wasn't it budgeted for last year, rather than having to do it through supplementary estimates? If it has been going on that long, how much of the $18 million is left that we can expect in future supplementaries?

Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, I think the first year that the program was available, no one applied for the funding. It has just been recently that individual communities and regions have asked to access some of this funding that is supposedly available. Because of the nature of the western part of the Northwest Territories; that is, in the Eastern Arctic there is one claim so it is very to figure out what our annual needs were, it was all agreed to up front. Here in the West, we simply figured out the number of people involved in hunting and trapping and renewable resource harvesting using the same basis for calculating. In the East we used the same basis as in the West. We just figured out the maximum that would be required is $18 million. But there is no single group in the West; in fact, in many regions as you can tell, it's individual communities that are asking to access this money and we've complied with that. If the Member wants to know how much money has been allocated to date and how much these commitments are for, then we can provide that. For instance, most of these are under three-years. This is the first of three-year commitments.

So we can provide that kind of detail. For instance, under the Fort Good Hope Hunters' and Trappers' Association, it shows we're required to provide $220,000 this year. Next year will be another $220,000 and the year after would be just a little less than that. So we can provide that type of a summary for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Ootes. Oh, Mr. Steen.

Would it be possible to get a breakdown or get it in writing as to how you qualify for this grant; what the terms are for qualification for the grants and what can the money be used for by the groups? I'm not familiar with this program at all in my region. I'm also wondering, Madam Chair, if the $900,000 for Fort Resolution bison is also the same program.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Kakfwi.

Yes, we can provide the guidelines that are under the Nunavut harvesters' assistance program, and we can also provide the guidelines we use for the western harvesters' assistance program to the Members here. The $900,000 that's shown as a grant in kind contribution that the Member is referring to is the bison that this government owned at the Hanging Ice Ranch in Fort Smith, that we recently transferred ownership from this government to the Fort Resolution First Nations people. The book value is about $900,000, so we had simply agreed that, in order to get out of the bison business which we didn't want to be in, for largely research capabilities we had basically contributed this to the project in Fort Resolution. We need to show that in our bookkeeping exercises here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, I'm having a problem. It seems to say to provide funding to record grant in kind of $900,000. Now the Minister is telling me the bison were worth $900,000. Is he suggesting that $900,000 was given to the Resolution band and then received back from the government for the bison? Just how did that happen?

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Kakfwi.

Madam Chair, perhaps I could ask Lew Voytilla from the Financial Management Board Secretariat if he could explain why we're doing it this way. There's no exchange of money. Having taken one attempt at it, perhaps Lew could be more brilliant and clear.

Mr. Voytilla.

Thank you, Mr. Voytilla. Mr. Steen, does that conclude your questions on this item?

I understand then that the supplementary appropriation was used in order to give $900,000 for the bison to Fort Resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Voytilla.

Thank you, Mr. Voytilla.

I understand now that Fort Resolution doesn't owe $900,000. They just got $900,000 worth of free bison.

Mr. Voytilla.

Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question relates to the harvesters' assistance program and the fact that there is a liability of a total of $18 million over the years. Has the government budgeted any amounts in the next year's main appropriations?

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Todd.