Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Supplementary to the same honourable Minister. As the Minister is aware in the eastern Arctic, in the Taloyoak area, the only means of transportation during the winter months, ten months out of the year, is by air. We do not have any highways up there. We do not have any waterways open during the ten months of the year. Given the effort put by the community of Taloyoak, I believe more so than any other community that are requesting the same project, how soon will the honourable Minister make his decision regarding which community should be getting funding or go ahead with their projects? Thank you.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it will take some time. I cannot really say exactly when, what time we will be able to have this information available. Mr. Speaker, we will have to look into considerations such as the present runway extension is determined based on the requirements of the carrier of choice which is the scheduled aircrafts serving the communities. At the present time, we are told by the air carriers that all runways in the NWT communities are long enough to meet the requirements of the aircraft serving them now and for the foreseeable future. Based on that and at the same time based on the fiscal restraint that we are under, we wanted to look at this issue very carefully and determine all the factors that are there. Again, we would like to continue to work with the communities that have made these requests. At some point in time in the future, once we get this information in place, we will continue with this whole process here and decide at that point in time what we are going to do next. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. We understand that many of the responsibilities that CMHC used to perform in the Northwest Territories have been assumed by the Government of the Northwest and particularly the NWT Housing Corporation. Could the Minister give us a little background as to what responsibilities, if any, NWT Housing Corporation will not have? In other words, could he tell us as to CMHC's responsibilities in the Northwest Territories now as opposed to GNWT's? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I plan to make a Minister's statement in the next couple of days outlining some of the details that are contained in the agreement that we signed with the Government of Canada some weeks back which basically transferred many of the CMHC files to the Northwest Territories. But to answer the Member's other part of the question, some of the underwriting of mortgages provided by CMHC was not transferred to the NWT as were some other minor areas. But most of the responsibility of administering housing, social housing especially, has been fully transferred to the GNWT.

Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that information and I certainly will look forward to his further details on that transfer. The Minister mentioned that some of the responsibilities that CMHC presently has and obligations which they have to private individuals or businesses, did the Minister tell me that those would still be in place and that those businesses or individuals would still deal directly with CMHC as opposed to the Housing Corporation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I can confirm that the role of underwriting mortgages especially through the five percent downpayment assistance that the CMHC has carried out over the last few years will continue. As I told Members of the House before, CMHC is releasing its responsibilities of delivering social housing to us, to the NWT and to all the other provinces and the Yukon Territory. The role of underwriting mortgages has not been transferred to any of the provinces or the territories. It is something that they are keeping. So, people who presently hold mortgages underwritten by CMHC will continue under the current arrangement that they have and there will be no changes under that program.

Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the question of the $90 million plus liability that GNWT or NWT Housing Corporation has with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, how will that be handled as far as the division of those liabilities between east and west? Has the department looked at ways of handling that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if the Member is asking how we will handle the liability of the long term debt that the Housing Corporation has with CMHC when it comes to division of the two territories with Nunavut and the western territory. That is something that is part of the ongoing division implementation plan that we are doing. I guess to put it in a nut shell, the financing terms that we have are very favourable to the GNWT and to the Housing Corporation and it will be part of the overall division of assets and liabilities arrangements that we are able to negotiate between the GNWT, the western territory and the Nunavut territory and all the other parties. Thank you.

Oral questions. Final supplementary. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would I be correct in assuming that the $90 million plus liability that the GNWT through the Housing Corporation has towards CMHC is tied to residential homes throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Arlooktoo.

Mr. Speaker, the majority of the $90 million debt had come about from the building of public housing rather than private homes.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

The Minister responsible for Northern Constitutional Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the intention of the Constitutional Working Group is to meet soon, this week. We will then plan on what kind of work that we need to do in the next few months. Throughout the summer, hopefully, we will find some time to at least meet and carry on with instructions to our officials to carry on with developing some of the work that needs to get done. By the fall, hopefully, we will have a package that we would like to take back to the communities. The intention for the second round of community consultation is that there would be a package that is acceptable to the participants in the Constitutional Working Group before we take it back to the communities, something that is substantial that people could have a good look at it again and try to incorporate all the concerns that were expressed during the initial round of consultation. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary. Mr. Ootes.