Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every community across the NWT has a waiting list of people who want to move into a house. I would think that waiting list would be sufficient to determine how many houses are needed. My question is does the Minister have in his possession, in the office, the number on waiting lists for housing across the Territories from the communities. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, the local housing organizations in the communities do maintain lists of those who are on the waiting lists and they provide them to the Housing Corporation. I can find that document and provide it to the Member.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions Mr. Roland.

Thank you. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, during the swearing-in ceremonies, I had the

opportunity to speak to the officer in charge of the program at the RCMP "G" Division. He advised me that they were looking at expanding this program into other major centres within the Northwest Territories in the immediate future. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, not within the Northwest Territories, as I indicated in my statement. It's the first program to be established in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for FMBS. I request that the Minister briefly advise this House as to what plans, if any, are presently being drafted to ensure that an orderly and equitable approach to division takes place. If there are plans being drawn up now, what is the timing on this? Thank you.

Thank you. The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Two questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Cabinet at the present time, we have a Cabinet committee on division that is made up of Cabinet colleagues. I co-chair this committee with my colleague, Mr. Arlooktoo. We have a Nunavut Secretariat which is headed up by Tom Isaac, who I think some of you have met. There is clearly a need for this government to be somewhat visionary and move forward in terms of trying to develop departmental strategies as to division of the Territories; we can't sit and wait until April 1, 1999 and say, oops, what are we going to do. We're certainly working as fast as we can because I think we're a little behind schedule.

Some of us thought we were a bit of a visionary when we decided to put assistant deputy ministers in the Eastern Arctic as an example of how to do it. What we're trying to do here is move quickly to put departmental plans in place that address my honourable colleague's question of equity and fairness and having a plan in place -- a blueprint - that will allow us to move quickly to ensure that the two governments are ready and up and running on April 1, 1999. At this time, we certainly can't put everything on hold. We have to move aggressively and try to put a plan in place that everybody is reasonably comfortable with. If not, I suspect, Mr. Speaker, that we would end up in chaos and I'm certainly not prepared to let that happen. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, my question is to the Minister responsible for FMBS. The second part of my question was what is the timing on these plans. When can we expect to see some portion of the work that's being conducted? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

Last week, I talked about the need for the MLAs and the constituency at large to get involved in this process. I'm hoping that if we do get concluded by late Wednesday night, we can have some serious discussion on this issue. I'm of the belief that we need to put a plan in place as quickly as possible and we need to implement some of it prior to 1999 if we're going to have any chance of two governments functioning in a reasonable way. There also has to be some balance in terms of political debate about what are incremental costs and what is being funded from within, et cetera.

In answer to my colleague, I don't have an actual time line right now because we need further discussion and I need to involve, as quickly as we can, the ordinary Members. I want to assure him that my philosophy is to move quickly, to put the plans in place that we're comfortable with, and I would go as far as saying, at the risk of being contradicted, that we should move prior to April 1, 1999 and not wait. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government has many quasi-judicial boards and agencies. One such board is the Public Utilities Board. My question for the Minister of the PUB is what are the terms of reference of said PUB in reporting to the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you. I have a bit of a concern with regard to the connotation of the term used, "PUB." I think the Members use the term P-U-B or else Public Utilities Board. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Rightly said. Mr. Speaker, I don't have at my fingertips the terms of reference for the Public Utilities Board. However, I would be only too happy to provide that to my honourable colleague later on this week or over the weekend while we're discussing larger issues with his constituency in Iqaluit.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Item 6, oral questions.