Thank you. The Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was trying to deal with the big picture, and if I have confused my colleague, who I frequently look up to, I apologize. The reality is, what I was trying to explain is that $100 million has come out of the capital budget over the last two years. That is a lot of money. That is a lot of money where capital projects did not go. There is a lot of money where people did not get jobs, as the NWT Construction Association and others have said, and we have to find new and creative ways to continue with that level of capital infrastructure to ensure:

1) the infrastructure is in place for the people we represent;

2) create economic activity and jobs;

3) meets the targets that we have set for deficit elimination.

That is the reason behind the questions earlier. I believe it, and that is the reason behind my answer. It is certainly not the intention to imply that my honourable colleague's hospital is in jeopardy. It is merely suggesting that unless we get changes, we may not be able to go with the public and private partnership route. That is the route we are heading with the development of these public structures, as he well knows. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Todd.

The short answer to that is, absolutely. We need to find the right policy methods to move forward, not only on my honourable colleague's project but on others. I want to assure him, for his audience back home that it is our intention, with the cooperation of this House, and I believe there are enough people who will cooperate with us, to move forward on these amendments, to get on with the job of doing what we are supposed to do, to try to find new creative ways to put the infrastructure that our constituencies expect, create new jobs, and still keep within the Deficit Elimination Act that is before us. I want to assure Mr. Roland that is the intention of this government, provided the cooperation of the House, we will be able to move forward this week and change the Act to do what has to be done, as I have said earlier. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ningark.

The Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The announcement I made last week had to do with the building of shore pipelines from the tank farms in four Keewatin communities to the shoreline which would enable offshore tankers to deliver fuel to those tanks rather than the barge operation, which exists now. This has to do with the decision made by Cabinet several months ago following recommendations of the Keewatin's Resupply Steering Committee, that the Keewatin resupply, whether it be fuel or for cargo should be open to competition, therefore, at some point in time, lower prices. At this point in time, as the Member may know, or up to now, the resupply to the Keewatin has been through sort of a negotiated contract with NTCL. The reason we are moving ahead with this is because as a government we know it is a good move. It will improve service overall, and over the 20-year life cycle of these pipelines, it will save $100 million. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Supplementary to the same honourable Minister. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister give any guarantee that direct resupply to Kivallivik will provide employment and training for local people and economic spin-off to the communities in the way of work for local contractors? Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, when the government reviews a request for proposal for building of the infrastructure, that I announced, the training and employment for local people and local businesses will get extra consideration, as they always do. I cannot guarantee that it will be a regional operation that gets these, but certainly we do insist that local people are hired, and we will make sure of that.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, supplementary. Mr. Speaker, one wonders why the Nunasi Corporation is concerned about the intent of the government to direct resupply, fuel supply to the Keewatin. It may have to do with that the Nunasi Corporation, the part-owner of NTCL, was not consulted on this matter. Was Nunasi consulted by the Minister and the Cabinet prior to decision-making of this matter? Thank you.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been extensive consultation, for the past year, with all the Keewatin communities with all the MLAs from the region. There has been a good number of meetings with NTCL. Most recently, there was communication between Mr. Clement, the President of NTCL and Mr. Lovely, our deputy Minister of Public Works. Overall, I would say that there has been very extensive consultation with all stakeholders on this project.

Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Minister of Public Works and Services, two questions.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, firstly I must say that I do understand the Member's and the company NTCL's concern about possibly losing what amounts to a very lucrative contract over the years. I think it is important to clarify that we are not ruling out NTCL in this process. What we are doing is we are making the process competitive and open. We did, in fact, do that last year with the Eastern Arctic Fuel Resupply. In that contract, NTCL won fair and square because they had the best proposal. I think it is fair to say that with this process that we have outlined, NTCL does have the upper hand right at square one because of their experience, because of their equipment, personnel, et cetera. The linkage between the dry cargo and fuel delivery is because during the consultation there was a fair amount of concern among some of the Keewatin communities on how the dry cargo resupply would be affected by the possible loss of fuel being delivered to the community by barge. That is why we have structured the RFP to make sure that when a company puts forward a proposal on how they would deliver fuel to the Keewatin communities, they also tell us the how's, why's and where's, they would deliver the dry cargo.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.