Madam Chair, surely we have both a corporate and a political responsibility to the residents of the Northwest Territories to engage in some kind of discussion, some kind of planning for the creation of two new territories. After all, we are the government at the present time. We have a great deal of corporate knowledge available and, I think it would be naive of my honourable colleague to suggest that we are not going to be a partner in the process.
To answer his question with respect to money. First of all, I appreciate his clarification of his comments yesterday and I will accept them at face value. The important thing here is to say there are no direct implementation costs with respect to the creation of two territories that are going to be funded by this government. Let me repeat that. No direct implementation costs that are going to be funded by this government.
There is, no question, some costs associated with good planning and advice which we are giving on this report and to the parties at the table. I mean, we are meeting on a regular basis. There are some expenditures there. In terms of the large dollars in relation to implementation. I think we have been pretty clear and pretty consistent that responsibility lies in the hands of the federal government. I am going to take Ms. Stewart at face value when she says to me: one, we will re-examine the $150 million original submission of March 1996, to see if we can re-profile some of that money which was approved by the federal cabinet; and two, that she is prepared to sit down with all parties, and I have to remind everybody for clarity purposes who the parties are; Government of the Northwest Territories, federal government, NTI, the Interim Commissioner, and the western coalition.
It is a bit complicated. It is not the government-to-government debate. It is a variety of partners that was agreed upon through a political accord that was signed a number of years ago. In terms of Mr. Steen's concerns and reassurances that this government is not going to expend large dollars in relation to implementation, I can give him that today, unequivocally. I will say to him that we are spending some money, no doubt, as I said on the cost of planning and just good corporate and political responsibility that we all have. I am confident that the Minister of DIAND means it when she says that she is prepared to sit down with the parties and look at some consideration for the shortfall of the dollars that are necessary to move forward.
In respect to who is responsible? The responsibility clearly lies in the hands of the Interim Commissioner and the federal government. We made it clear from the outset that we are giving advice to the Interim Commissioner. He can choose to accept it or not. Given the corporate knowledge that we have, we have a responsibility to lay out a plan for the eventual creation of two territories. After all, we are training people for that eventuality. Four of them are in the House today. Two from my riding, which I am pleased to see. Both charming young ladies, Ms. Makpah and Ms. Camphaug. We are spending money already. The federal government has given us that money to assist in training these people. We are in a partnership. I recognize and I understand Mr. Steen's concerns, particularly about his riding, but I do not know what other assurances I can give him, other than what I have said. One, there are no direct implementation costs, for the third time. Two, we have an agreement from the federal government to form a table to take a look at what we fundamentally believe is the shortfall to put into place the essential ingredients of a new government so it is functional in April 1, 1999. How much that is going to be? I do not know. Who is going to pay? The federal government. Thank you, Madam Chair.