Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, Mr. Kakfwi, in regard to my Member's statement about the disparity between the oil and gas industry, the mining industry, especially in relation to diamonds. A lot of potential we have in the north, especially the region where I come from in regard to the Parsons Lake pipeline project which hopefully will have a go this winter. Also, there is talk about the oil companies from Calgary, such as Shell Oil, have shown an interest in the Beaufort Sea again, and also the activity happening in the Mackenzie Valley, especially in the area of Sahtu and also the Deh Cho.

Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is what is his department doing to ensure that the oil and gas industry receives a similar treatment as they are in regard to the diamond industries when it comes to meeting with the oil and gas companies, and, also, developing infrastructure and joint venture and also trying to entice oil and gas industries back into the north? What his department doing to ensure that there is a fair distribution amongst industries? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the area of diamonds I think our government, from the onset, had felt it had not only territorial obligation, but a national obligation, as well, to make the federal government aware of the enormous potential that it had bypassed by giving a licence prematurely to BHP. We have done a lot of work to make sure that some of the jobs, some of the economic opportunities that seem to have almost bypassed us were in fact realized. We take that approach, as well, in the oil and gas business.

We have been working for the past couple of years with the federal government, for instance, to reduce the tariff from the Norman Wells pipeline, so that all companies will find it more economical to explore for oil and gas further up the Mackenzie Valley because it becomes economical for them to transport their product down that line. We have been working with the Sahtu communities and communities in the Deh Cho because the federal government has issued licences and oil companies have bid on those licences to make sure that they come to agreements: access agreements, benefit agreements. Those have been signed in Fort Liard, Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Norman Wells. We have been working very hard with those communities. The focus has not been just on diamonds, we have a division that is created in the department strictly to deal with oil and gas.

We have worked with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation recently in their bid to try to find the strongest economic means of initiating work in the Darnley Bay area. I was in Europe, I cut the trip short by a day to return in order to get organized and do a Senate presentation in support of the Inuvialuit initiative. As a government we are taking a very balanced approach to making sure that everything is done to get into the diamond business, and to approach in a balanced way that benefits everybody, that all the economic opportunities are seized at the onset and that development proceeds as it should.

We are also taking the view that we have to go periodically to Calgary. I have done that on a number of occasions over the past year and a half. I have gone to Fort Liard once in the spring on the request of the community to help them seize opportunities. They have been seizing opportunities. The MLA asked yesterday if I would return to Fort Liard. We have agreed to a community visit next Friday. Where communities request it and at every possible occasion, we are working as a government to do everything we can to make sure oil and gas companies return to the north, and to find an environment that is receptive and conducive for them to operate and explore economically. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to keep this question as simple as I can. Can the Minister give me an idea how much money this government has spent on studies and funds that have been allocated to the different sectors between the oil and gas sector and the mining sector?

Mr. Speaker, we had full intention of doing that. Over a year and a half ago we presented to the Legislature an economic framework. That framework was intended to show, as transparently as possible, what type of resources this government provides for the different sectors of the economy how much money we put into hunting and trapping, into tourism, into the lumber industry, into oil and gas, into diamonds and mining. I would be prepared to present such a document to the Members. It would take some work but that was the intent, so I will ask the department to provide it to the Members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of Finance. It is in regard to his two part Minister's statement of collective bargaining mediation. Mr. Speaker, this issue is of significant concern to many people in my constituency, and I am sure across the Northwest Territories, to the extent that, as you will recall, I tabled a petition in this House recently. Could the Minister elaborate on the issue of a gender-neutral evaluation system being the only issue left that is holding up the collective bargaining process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue, it would appear to me anyway, and I would like the Minister to clarify, is not as straightforward as it would seem. The pay equity is off the table, but that whole issue of pay equity is that there is no gender-neutral job evaluation system. If in fact there is an agreement in the collective agreement and they accept the Hay Plan Job Evaluation System as being gender-neutral, will that not have a direct effect on the pay equity issue?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we talked about this issue a number of weeks ago, there was a certain amount of optimism that there would be money in the hands of the employees by Christmas. Looking at these dates chosen of December 12th and 13th when mediation will continue, can the Minister elaborate if there any hope, no matter how faint, that in fact there may be some money in the hands of employees by Christmas.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister also indicated that the government will not oppose terms and conditions. My question to the Minister is, if in fact this carries on past division on April 1, 1999, will the two new Legislatures, in fact, be able to legally address the issue of retroactivity going back to April, 1998, under what would have been a separate government?