Mr. Arlooktoo.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not aware of any slippage funds, the statement I made yesterday confirmed that because of the demand for the EDAP program, the funds had very quickly been depleted and that we are now trying to deal with the third and final year of applicants. I can assure the Member that I am doing all I can in working with my Cabinet and making sure that the federal government, the federal ministers who are responsible for DIAND and Housing, that they are well aware of our critical need.

Oral questions. Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, it has been a while since we have heard any information on the Aurora Fund. I wonder if the Minister would give the House an update on the Aurora Fund? Thank you.

The Minister of Finance, Mr. Todd.

Yes, the Aurora Fund. I believe I sent a complete update to each of the Members last week indicating that....Mr. Speaker was shaking his head, perhaps I did not. I thought I did. I am sure I sent a letter out to all the Members indicating what the latest....thank you, Mr. Steen, he obviously reads his mail....indicating where the Aurora Fund lending has gone. I do not have that detail with me here today. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker I wonder if the Minister could tell us what will happen to the fund post division? Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you. Well, the fund really has a sunset clause and once the money all comes in and it is all out, it is the end of the fund if you want, it really does not exist. At some point it will fade away as they would say. If there are any additional lending monies available after division, I would assume that we would just keep it in place. I would not see it as part of, if you want an east/west fund, because it really is just a one-time fund, it ends, it is not ongoing.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not have the information that Mr. Todd sent out last week, but I wonder if he could recall what the amount of the fund is as of this date.

Mr. Todd.

No I cannot, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, but I am sure if you have not got the information I will get if for him this afternoon. As I indicated many times on this issue of this fund, that I would provide the House on a continuing basis with a list of who the fund has lent its funds to. I am sorry but I do not have an update today at my fingertips as to what its position is. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation. I would like to ask him a few questions in relation to the response that he provided to the Member from Yellowknife Centre in reply to an oral question the other day on transpolar flights. Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicates that the promised opening of Russian airspace will prove a great blessing for their air industry in time and fuel savings and that, literally, everyone in the world stands to gain from new shorter and less expensive transpolar routes.

I think that he should have qualified that, it is everybody except us who stands to gain. Sometime ago with some northern transportation representative we had estimated that these new polar routes would garner NAV Canada something like $125 million because of more flights going over us but that was based on 60,000 flights. Now the Russians are talking about 150,000, so the money that NAV Canada would make would be twice as much as what we had estimated. What I would like to ask the Minister is, is all that money that would be going to NAV Canada, will that be reflected in lower costs to us in the north since most of that money will be raised through the airspace that they are flying over the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this line of questioning originated as a result of an article in the Globe and Mail, which I indicated the other day that I had not read, but I have read it since that time. In that article it indicates that it is a proposal that the Russians are putting forward. In the article it says that it may take about two or three years before it gets into full operation, so there is still a lot of time to consider this, if it is ever going to go ahead, so I would like to qualify that first. In regard to the honourable Members questioning as to whether we going to benefit or not and everybody else is going to benefit, I do not know this, Mr. Speaker, because this is Canadian airspace we are dealing with. I do not think the provinces benefit from their own airspace every time there are international flights going over them. We in the Northwest Territories certainly do not benefit from transpolar flights that go over us. I think that Canada as a whole, the Canadian government, probably through NAV Canada, will probably benefit in that regard. I am not too familiar with that type of arrangement with the transpolar flights so I would like to maybe reply in that manner. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further along in the Minister's reply he had indicated that more transpolar traffic will have little or no direct impact on the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, currently when there is a flight that has taken off from an area that has radar services, they direct an overflying jet to a certain height. When our flights take off from here, we do not have radar so we have to fly underneath them. Our jets cannot go up to a higher level until it is very clear that the other jet has left that airspace. If there are going to be 60,000 to 100,000 more flights over us, it seems to me that we are always going to be flying in the clouds over here or maybe never get off the ground. So I was wondering how the Minister can say that this will not affect our transportation system here? Thank you.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the reply was in regard to the financial impact that we will experience here in the Northwest Territories. In the article it indicates that the Russians will benefit hundreds of millions of dollars per year if their full plan goes ahead in regard to the fees they collect for flights that go over their airspace. My reference to that affect is based on that. My reply was that in Canada, the Canadian government with Transport Canada, NAV Canada are the agencies in place to collect that type of fees, not necessarily the provincial or territorial government. We do not collect that kind of fees when there are transpolar flights over our airspace. That is my response and the oral question was based on that, that is how I said we will not get affected. However, if there are more flights over us, certainly we are going to be affected one way or the other. Like I said, this plan is to be put into place maybe in the next two or three years, so we have some time here to analyse this new plan that the Russians are putting forward. At this point of time, I do not really have any clear idea of how all these new flights will affect us. It is going to have some effect on us, but I really do not know in what manner. Thank you.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has indicated that they will be looking at these new flights and their effects. Could I also ask the Minister to convey our concerns to the rest of Cabinet about the possible environmental effects of up to 150,000 more flights going over the Northwest Territories per year? What type of environmental effects are there from all that fuel that is being burned and coming down perhaps onto the Northwest Territories rivers, lakes and the plant life? We do know that the plants around here take a lot longer to grow because we have a shorter growing season, so could the Minister also convey our concerns here and that they will do a check as well? Thank you.