Like any other good Finance Minister, you review all the battles you lose and you review all the battles you win. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that was a very good nondescript answer and so, instead of wasting my questions, I will go on to a different topic. Mr. Speaker, last week we had a briefing on the Aurora Investment Fund. I guess I would like to follow up with some questions on that fund and again, just for transparency, and the public at large know what is happening with that fund. I tried to bring these questions forward, Mr. Chairman, not out of a vendetta, or witch-hunt, or conspiracy but I believe that, as an instrument of government, then the public has the right to know. Are there guidelines, that could be tabled in this House, in regard to how you qualify and the loan granting criteria so that the public will know so we can table in this House. Thank you.

I thought I was going to get through this questioning without the embellishments and the adjectives that my honourable colleague frequently expounds and, of course, he does not like it when we do it back. Yes, there are guidelines and, yes, I am prepared to table in the House to ensure there is transparency in the process.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is indeed good news. Will the Minister also table in the House when he tables the guidelines, the number of loans that have been to date, the amounts and the industry sectors and the jobs that are created so that the process is transparent and open so that the public can see that indeed this Aurora Fund has been a success

and, that we are extolling the virtues of a strategy that Mr. Todd has brought forward so serendipitously that we are so proud of? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. There is only one question, Mr. Chairman. I said, is he going to table the guidelines - so I said if he is going to table the guidelines, will he also table the number of loans done, the amounts, the industry sectors, and how many jobs have been created so that the process is transparent? It is just one question. Thank you.

Thank you. Will the Minister also table in the House specifically on the loans that have been done to date, not the names I do not really want to know who got the loans because I know you cannot do that, but just on how much has been given out and so on and so forth. I think the Member has heard the question now three times, so I think he knows what I am saying. I think he is ready to answer. Yes, I can see he is ready to answer over there. Let him answer that one question.

I want to applaud my honourable colleague who frequently champions the need for transparency in the government. I have some problems with this issue because I fundamentally believe, not because we do not want transparency, I do not think we should ask the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce to table who they lend their money to in this House. Now, I know he is going to tell me, well, the government financed this fund and that is true. But they repay it so there is a net impact to the government. I would have to look at it because I think we are invading people's private requests for money. Nothing else. I think, if we table that criteria for the funding, et cetera, it should reassure him whatever. I do not know quite where my colleague sometimes goes with this stuff, but you know he does have a tendency to read novels and watch Oliver Stone movies.

I would be prepared to table in the House at this stage, the criteria for this fund and the conditions set by it. Perhaps, how many loans, I am not prepared to table who gets loans. That is a private matter, et cetera. I know but I am answering it. Do I hear an echo? You know, I have a bit of a philosophical difference with my colleague on this issue because I feel it is a private matter. It is not because I do not want transparency, but I believe it is a private matter. When I put my money, what little I do have, into CIBC and in GIC's or whatever, I do not want to ask them who they lend the money to. This is a private fund, funded by outside investors from offshore, so I will have to work out, to give my honourable colleague comfort, the level of detail he wants. I will commit to doing that so there is at least some level of transparency so he is comfortable in the world he lives in, with the phone calls he gets from his constituents with respect to this fund and reassure him that we will do the best we can to bring forward as much information as we can so he will stop getting phone calls about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that and I did not ask for any names. I only asked for the amount of the loans. I asked how many had been done in the industry, within the retail trade, within the construction trade. I do not read Oliver Stone novels. I read Kafka, I read the Prince of Machiavelli. I am not asking these questions in a facetious manner, Mr. Chairman. I am asking in a serious manner. I try to raise issues of open government because that is what we are charged to do here in this Assembly, is to guide and guard the public purse. I have a question. As Chair of the Division Committee, will the Minister arrange a meeting of the Nunavut Caucus in cooperation with the Caucus Chairman, sit down with the Interim Commissioner to review the transition plan and to see where we are right now because we have not had a meeting for a while. So that is my request, will the Chair of the Division Committee be looking at that and is that one of the roles that the Minister plays? Thank you.

Yes, sure. I thought we were reviewing government here. Yes, I will do that if that is what you want. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, is it number eight? Number six? Number eight. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that was a good question on the meeting with the Interim Commissioner because it is government that we are talking about today. One of the roles that the Minister plays, the thespian that he is in this House, is as the Chair of the Division Committee it falls under his mandate. My final question, Mr. Chairman, is regarding the draconian legislation that was brought forward by the Minister, the Public Service Act. I am wondering, will the Finance Minister direct the FMBS to look at changing the Public Service Act, not all of the act, just the part that benefits of free collective bargaining can actually take place and so that is my question. Will he look at the Public Service Act and hopefully, amend it to allow a free collective bargaining. As a former union negotiator, union facilitator and organizer in 1965, Mr. Todd is fully aware of the need for a free collective bargaining so I wonder if he would direct his staff to look at the Public Service Act.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate my colleague's question. I believe I answered that question last week or early this week. If he reviews Hansard, I think he will find my answer. Thank you.