Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Minister will be following this very closely. Will the Minister commit to this House, and the people of the Northwest Territories, that as this situation develops, he will address it here in the House, so that the people of the Northwest Territories can be updated on what is happening with the sale, and the possible burying or not burying of these contaminated DEW Line sites. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

The Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment. Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is unfortunate that this has taken place, but I do appreciate the Minister's explanation. I would hope that seniors in Hay River would be understanding, Mr. Speaker. This $135 per month payment is very important to many senior citizens who do not earn high income and have recently experienced reductions in support. Can the Minister tell me when the seniors in Hay River will be getting their cheques exactly? Thank you.

Mr. Dent.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Steen.

The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to develop a constitution for the west in the NWT here, we still have a long way to go. We are only now looking at going into the communities. We finally secured some funding from this government and the feds to put teams together and go into the communities and explain the package, and get some feedback. Hopefully, have a revision of the package by the spring, perhaps this summer. The idea here is to have the package for ratification in the fall sometime.

In the meantime, the Constitutional Working Group has been working with the federal officials, because we need them to be involved if ever we are to put changes to the NWT Act into the federal legislation. They have to be involved from the very beginning. They are involved now, and they are willing to participate as we look at revising the package. That it will be acceptable first to people in the North and it has to also be acceptable to the federal government before they agreed to go ahead and develop the legislation that will go through their Parliament.

As we all know, the federal government is going to be going into a federal election fairly soon. Maybe, as early as this spring, maybe in the fall we are told. We have to take that into consideration. If we say that there is a federal election by the fall, let us say October, I am not saying that is going to happen, I am just saying that it could happen. If we have documentation, that will have to be ready by then, and then once a new government gets in, we will be able to hopefully work with the new government that is in place to move ahead with legislation.

It is going to be sometime before, it will take about a year or so before we get through that process. We do not know. I have to tell the honourable Member that at this point and time, although we have discussed it quite thoroughly, it is still very much an unknown at this point in time. But we can only speculate that we look at some timeframes and we try to aim for that. Hopefully, we will have something in place by the time division happens. That window of opportunity is very narrow, and it is closing very rapidly. There are so many different players involved that it is going to be very hard to say right now that we are going to have a legislation ready to go for acceptance by division time. Thank you.

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

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do not have a timeframe. I do not know. It is a real unknown at this time. I am told by the people who are

aware of these things that it usually takes a minimum of two years for a legislation to go through the federal Parliament. Like I said, earlier, we do not have a legislation yet. We are still developing a package which will eventually become legislation in the federal government. DIAND will probably be one of the key players in the federal system to develop a package. So at this point of time, it is a unknown to us. We can only go by what we are told by people who are experts in these things, and they are telling us that it takes about two years before legislation goes through the federal system. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Steen.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I only could tell the honourable Member what may possibly happen. It is unknown at this point in time, but if the feds agree to speed up this legislation, then I think they have the capability of doing that. But, if it is going to go through a normal process, I am told that the honourable Member is correct. It would be about 22 months, which is two years, for legislation to go through. If you factor in the federal election that may be coming, perhaps we have already gone past the time before we are able to have a package by 1999. It might be 1999 that we have a package. So I could only speculate at this time, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Steen.