Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that, as you know, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Social Services. Funding for Arctic College programs are with ECE. I can say that there was a request that had gone forward as well and in conjunction with ours and Mr. Dent would be planning on making an announcement, I believe tomorrow, on that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Picco.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on page 21 of Mr. Ng's report it talks about the flexibility necessary in hiring, an incentives fund would be established. I am wondering if the incentives fund that is in the report tabled by Mr. Ng. is part of the funding that was approved today? Thank you.

Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the

report was not tabled in this particular session of the Assembly, but knowing the background of it, I will respond to the Member that no, that is not a part of the submission that was put forward and approved by the Financial Management Board. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Enuaraq.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will be directing my question to the Minister of Transportation, the Honourable Jim Antoine. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please update this House on what is happening on the runway in Pangnirtung? Thank you.

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as far as I know, the department has not really done anything other than they normally do with the runway in Pangnirtung. I guess I have reported in the House in previous Assemblies that there has been a request for major funding to go to Pangnirtung to move the airport to another location. I had indicated that the department did not have any funds to do such an expenditure at this time. However, we were working with Transport Canada to see what could be done with it. That is the only source of possibly trying to meet up with the requests of the honourable Member, by this route. At this point in time, I have not really had an update with my department with regards to how that is progressing. I will have to check with the department in this regard and get more further detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Mr. Ootes.

The question is very detailed and two questions were asked. Would you like to respond, Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department had approval by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to give us the permits to go ahead and commence the work on the section of Highway 3 between Yellowknife and Rae-Edzo. Therefore, clearing and brushing has begun on both ends. That is already in progress. In regards to the actual work to start the reconstruction of the section, it is to be out for public tender by the end of this month, by November 30th. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in our highway strategy one of the four strategies was to look at the section between Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife to see how we could accelerate this program. What we are doing in the department is that we are currently having a public tendering process to begin the initial work in the normal process. Once we publicly tender the work that is approved by the Legislative Assembly by the end of this month, then we will be moving into the phase of organizing an advisory committee of some sort and undertaking some studies to see how we could accelerate this program, including the financial aspect the honourable Member is inquiring about. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. That was your final supplementary. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, we are awaiting the awarding of the public tendering contract at the end of the month. After that, we will be getting into awarding some contracts to do some studies to look into these matters. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Finance in relation to some questions and statements that were made yesterday regarding the pay and

benefits for nurses. We have heard that some places are losing nurses and actually shutting down some programs because of loss of those nurses. We have also heard that Mr. Ng is now moving ahead on the recruitment and retention plan. That is good. What I wanted was clarification on what the Finance Minister indicated yesterday, that in some cases there is approximately $11,000 sitting there waiting to be offered to nurses, but that cannot be implemented. I was wondering if the Minister could indeed clarify if that is what the case is? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.