Thank you. The head of the Executive Council, the Premier, Mr. Morin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just reviewing Hansard right now while the honourable Member was asking the question, that is what I did state in the House yesterday, and what I meant to say is that I believe the Minister has the health issue in the Keewatin under control. He has sent in a team to the Keewatin to work with the people over there to make sure that we do have adequate health care in the Keewatin. The Minister has made a commitment

already that within the next two days he will be making a Minister's statement, probably tomorrow, in this House addressing the problems of the Keewatin health care. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. I will try to explain to my colleague once again as I frequently tried to explain to him how the Aurora Fund works. Mr. Speaker, we have it fully-subscribed, and what that means is, and I have said this before in the House, we have 130 to 150 people who have met the criteria for the Immigrant Investment Funds. As the money flows in we access it, put it into escrow, look for opportunities and invest it.

So, it may not necessarily mean that the money is in hand, but the money is in the bank because they have approved the 130 or the 150 or whatever it is. They have approved these subscribers. Each of them have given us a certain level of dollars, and assuming they meet all the immigrant investment criteria, they then enter into the system, ante up the $250. It comes through the system to the Aurora Fund to Mr. Bailey, who puts it in to escrow at the Bank of Montreal, who then looks at investment opportunities, and approves them. It comes out, goes in and away we go. Then we go on to the next subscriber, et cetera. If in my enthusiasm in a speech I made to an audience, I said there was $70 million in the bank, I meant that there was $70 million worth of equity, investment that we were going to get in the bank. Thank you.

Thank you. First supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Todd, the honourable Member is confused. Would you help him to understand?

I will try once again, Mr. Ootes. I understand my honourable colleague had a full briefing of this several months ago, so maybe he must have forgotten about the briefing. So, I will try once again to explain to him how it works. Mr. Lockyer, from the Cornwallis Group goes out and he markets our fund. He says to client A, do you wish to buy into our fund? Client A says, Yes. He then commits by putting in a deposit of $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, whatever he wants. He is committing to the whole $250,000, assuming he meets all the immigration requirements. Once he meets the immigration requirements, the rest of the cash comes in and it flows into the escrow account. The first fund is fully-subscribed. That means we have enough people who have committed dollars to give us the $30 or $35 million in the first fund. As it flows though, because each immigrant has to go through the immigration process, they are not going to put up $250,000 until they know they are going to get their passport, that just makes common sense. They are committed to the overall investment of $250,000. It is fully-subscribed, which means we do not require any more people in that. That is what fully-subscribed means, and as they meet their immigrant requirements the money flows in.

The first Aurora Fund is complete. It is just the timing factor in terms of when the immigration applications are approved. All the cash flows in there, I think it takes six months, twelve months. It is really not relevant. It just depends on the pace in which Immigration Canada works. The second fund is the same thing, I am advised by our Aurora Fund marketing agency, Mr. Lockyer, that it is fully-subscribed and the same principles are there that I have just described. If I am not explaining it well enough, I do not know how else to describe it. I think everybody else understands it.

Thank you. A long-winded response. A bit confusing. Could we try to be direct and concise when replying to the questions? Mr. Ootes, second supplementary.

Thank you. The honourable Mr. Todd.

I am trying to be patient on this question, Mr. Speaker, but I will try to be direct, some immigrants put in $10,000; some put in $50,000; some put in $250,000. It is fully-subscribed. Everybody that we need has made their application and has put some form of deposit down so that once their immigration approval has been received, they then ante up the balance if there is any to be done. That is all it is, nothing more. I thought this was a good news story. Everybody else seems to think it is.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. The honourable Mr. Todd.

The fact of the matter is that I am not concerned about is, if they meet the immigrant requirements, et cetera, that are necessary to become Canadian immigrants. I am not quite sure I understand the line of questioning, and I am not trying to be offensive to my colleague, but the reality is that in my eyes as the Minister of Finance, as a chairman on the Aurora Fund, we are fully-subscribed. We are confident that money will flow. It will work hard for businesses as it currently is. I applaud the efforts of all those active in it. Thank you.

--Applause

Thank you. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. The honourable Minister for Public Works and Services, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regard to the Lahm Ridge Tower lease, it is like I said yesterday in question period, that it was never a government building. It was a privately owned by the Lahm Ridge Investment Ltd. They sold it to a numbered company. Prior to this sale between the two private companies, the Department of Public Works and Services exercised the extension to renegotiate a lease arrangement which had expired two years ago. The Department of Public Works renegotiated a more favourable lease. This lease arrangement was negotiated before the sale between the two private companies, which is in line with the provisions of the lease arrangements between Public Works and Services.

In regard to the other part of the question, if this government is going to be looking at the sale of government assets, yes, this government is going to be looking at the different offices we have and the possible sale of these assets.

I know there is interest by aboriginal development corporations in these assets, and they will be welcome to get involved in these assets once they become available for sale. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.