I have a mandate, as does Cabinet and the Premier, to govern until March 31st. I do, until 1999. I have a responsibility to the territories as a whole, and I am going to continue to govern as if the territories was one. I am negotiating right now with the Interim Commissioner on Protocol Agreement, on exactly what Mr. Krutko talks about and also a protocol agreement on the employment of employees. I am mandated to continue to run government. I am not prepared, I may as well say it now, I am not prepared to sit and do nothing until April 1st, 1999. I fundamentally believe this is a creation of two new territories. If we are going to do nothing over there, then we should do nothing over here. It is two different territories, not one.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Mr. Chairman, I view myself not as a Member from the east but as a Cabinet Minister for the Northwest Territories who, hopefully, has the respect and the credibility to be fair, equitable and transparent. I would hope, in my honourable colleague's comments in unparliamentary language with a slip of the tongue, and I would ask him if he would be kind enough to retract his comments about being shafted.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko, would you retract that word?

Thank you. Question number seven, Mr. Krutko?

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

First of all, let me say, Mr. Chairman, I understand my honourable colleague's concern. I know it is both personal and professional, and I respect that, and I do. I thought my honourable colleague, Mr. Ng, had attempted to answer it to the best of his ability. He is as equally concerned as I am. I am not technically qualified because I am not the Minister of Health and Social Services to answer that question. I can tell you that there is a genuine concern and a concerted effort on my colleague's part, Mr. Ng, to try to find a solution to this particular problem, but also to find new and creative ways in which to improve health care.

I understand my colleague. I have heard myself say it ten, 15 years ago as to how come we have all these studies, and we do not have any action? Sometimes you need a plan. To build a house, you need a plan. I think it would be fair to say if we had not been in the fiscal difficulties we have been in the last two years, then maybe we would not be in this discussion. Maybe there would have been adequate money for health care, education, and everything else. But the tragedy of being dependent, as much as we are, is that we have a limited amount of ability and control over our fiscal resources.

Mr. Ng, and I do not profess to speak for him, is making a concerted effort to put a long-term plan in place for some major reform in health care that some of us are advocates of, and obviously, you have people who are not. But at the end of the day, I fundamentally believe that he will put into place, a reform package that will be able to bring about reasonable and adequate health care for northerners. That is certainly his objective in my discussion with him on the fiscal side. He is working under extremely difficult conditions. Of course, he has been subject to cuts that I have had to impose, the same as other Ministers have. I understand the concern of my colleague a lot more than what he thinks. Thank you.

Thank you. Final question, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Todd.

Frankly, that is a very good question. Mr. Chairman, there is no flexibility. The reality is, we have a very limited flexibility. That is why I have spoken at some length on the pay equity issue, and I hope our partners in the process, the UNW, recognize that. There has to be an affordable arrangement. That is a negotiated arrangement that hopefully we can make. My honourable colleague is right. If that is a large number, I shudder to think what kind of steps I have to make with my colleagues to find that money. I am hoping that common sense will prevail, and we will get an affordable, negotiated solution to that, prior to April 1, 1998, which is about six months away.

On the acts of God, I mean, I cannot do anything about that. That belongs to somebody else. Whether it is forest fires or natural disasters. Wiser men and women than me, understand that issue better than I do. I would only say to my colleague that I have had many sleepless nights trying to figure out how we are going to get ourselves out of this fiscal mess. I am personally relieved at the position that we are in. I feel an enormous amount of responsibility for the pain we created to a lot of people. But the reality is, we had to do it. I hope that in the time that we have left, that we do not have to do it again. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question to Mr. Todd could have easily been answered by Mr. Ng. However, it can also be asked of Mr. Todd since it is involved with financial institutions.

When families are forced to deal with a handicapped family member, it is always very difficult. It is even more so when this handicapped member is sent to southern Canada as there is no facility in the north that can properly take care of this individual. This being the reason, we are trying to institute a reappropriation of these family members. However, this is very difficult, mainly due to the way this government's financial system operates.

It costs roughly a $100,000 per year to house a handicapped person in a southern institute. Madam Chair, the problem comes when you try to bring this person back to the north. People say let us use this $100,000 to house this person here, within the Northwest Territories closer to the families. However, because these dollars are set aside for southern institutions, if this person is brought back, this money would be put back into a general revolving fund, and is used for something else. Meaning, the Yellowknife Association for Community Living or any other association across the north could not access these dollars to provide the handicapped individual to come into the community.

There is no program available to allow these individuals to come back to be with their loved ones. Can Mr. Todd, with his wisdom, come up with a solution that will allow for these family members to come back to the north, closer to their families, and provide, possibly, a cheaper alternative than to institutionalize these individuals? It is all simply because we cannot find a way to work this into our system. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very familiar with this program, Madam Chair, as I do have a handicapped facility in my riding of Rankin Inlet, where we do look after northern kids who do have severe handicaps, et cetera. So I sympathize and empathize with my colleague.

There is definitely a desire on the part of this government and certainly the Minister responsible, to repatriate our northern people so they are close to their families and close to their friends and relatives, and get the kind of northern care that is due them. There is a certain level of professional skill required, because this is a very sensitive area we are dealing with, particularly young children in this situation. I know that we have been working hard to ensure again based on my own personal experience in my riding, adequate expertise at the community level.

When you put it in financial terms, I hope I will say this properly. It is a lot of money, and certainly there is clearly a need if the north does not have some of the additional services you can get in southern Canada, for the handicapped people and children. We need to examine how we can do that. I will undertake to discuss the matter with Mr. Ng and work with him to look at what is happening in relationship to repatriation and look with him as to what is required over and above some of the care that is currently there, and see if in fact there is a possibility to embellish this program. But again, I guess, it would have to be done, with all due respect, to my colleague, within the fiscal framework of the government. But certainly it is an area of concern, and it is an area that I believe the Minister, in my discussions with him, is prepared to address. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A different question. Madam Chair, yesterday in my statement I referred to the possibility for this government to be walking on very dangerous water, regarding this new initiative you announced, dealing with the private and public partnerships. The reason I say it may be rather dangerous, as there is a possibility of big business dictating rules to this government, rather than the other way around, also open the doors that will not allow small business to compete, thus creating a climate that we rely on big business for everything. My question to the Minister is, how can he assure that these types of events do not happen?

I appreciate my colleague's question. It is a very good one, and I am very much aware of that issue. As a matter of fact, it was one that I had addressed when we were discussing the development of the new policy.

One of the ways that I think in our discussion that we were talking about, that could ensure small business et cetera is involved, is through what I call the consortium approach. Let us say for example, take my honourable colleague's riding and the road system. Let us just hypothetically say we were going to expand the road system. I think this government would want to see, certainly my honourable colleague, Mr. Kakfwi as the Minister responsible for Arviat, maximum benefits go to northern businesses in the proponents of whatever the proposal was.

One idea that was talked about was a consortium of smaller businesses or a consortium of claiming groups for example. A consortium of private and public development corporations that are out there. I think we could put enough safeguards in place to ensure that any major projects that come forward in this important new initiative are not controlled by so few, and if you want, not controlled by the larger businesses. I am fairly confident we can do that.

I will be quite frank with you. We have not worked out all the details of it. I am hoping to vet the policy through committee and I would at that time seek my colleague's counsel. But certainly, the intention is to try to maximize as much benefit as possible, should we decide to move on some projects under this private partnership policy. And certainly, the objective for this government and through RWED, Mr. Kakfwi will confirm that if you ask him, is we will want to maximize the benefits, not just for the big guys, but to the little guys as well. Thank you.