Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This options paper resulted from, I would say, at least a dozen draft discussion papers that were discussed with deputy ministers. These are not the only options which were considered, but they are the only options that we felt, as deputy ministers, that we could recommend to Cabinet.

The first option was a stand-fast option, which simply was to put all the staff that we could possibly put into the Laing and the Hodgson Buildings, put some capital money into the budget to do code upgrades and drop any leases that are on a month-to-month basis or which expire between 1997 and 1999. That was the cheapest option and it was one that was not recommended because of the potentially negative impact on the market.

Option two was to sell both the Laing and S.M. Hodgson Building and lease them back for ten to 20 years. Sell a variety of other office space in town and probably be in the same situation as we would have been had we simply retained ownership of those two buildings. The increased costs that were associated with this one over option number one were the increased lease costs.

Option number three was to sell the Laing Building and the Hodgson Building, to put a caveat on the Laing Building that it could not be used for government office space, to lease back the Stuart Hodgson Building for a period of ten to 20 years and to sell a variety of other properties around town as indicated in the office space plan. The reason that the Stuart Hodgson Building was recommended for sale and lease back was because of the existence of the government's main computer centre in the building. It was felt that was the building which had the most obvious lease back value.

In the end, Cabinet did not approve a variation of the third option. It indicated that the Stuart Hodgson Building should be retained as a government-owned building given the specialized nature of it, sell the Laing Building with a caveat and to extend long-term leases and sell some other properties. Those are the three options that were submitted. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

It was submitted to Cabinet on July 31st. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am told that this option two, the sale of the Laing Building and the SMH Building, was discussed in general terms with our superintendent. The Department of RWED was also involved in those discussions. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the document was given forward to Cabinet on July 31st. On August 14th the Cabinet reviewed this document and decided to go with option three at that time. In January, last month, the final decision was made with a different variation of option number three. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was not aware, personally, about the Denendeh Development Corporation's unsolicited proposal until about three weeks ago. I was not aware that there were meetings going on with regard to the Laing Building. The scenario that developed and the final decision by Cabinet to propose for the sale of Laing Building is based on the work that the DDC had already done. I do not think it is fair that they were not taken into consideration at all. There are other aboriginal corporations and groups that are interested in the Laing Building, as well, other than DDC and the Gwich'in. How do you accommodate them, as well? That is something that we had to deal with in Cabinet. The final decision is that, yes, the Laing Building is the Government of the Northwest Territories' own asset, over which we have control to sell or lease. This is the only building that we have that type of control over. In this case, it took a long time but the decision was made last January to go ahead and sell it.

During the summer, the officials of Public Works and Services had general discussions with DDC, but they did not have the authority to sell the building at that time. The authority was not given at that time. It only happened in January. These are all preliminary general discussions of possible proposals. It is up to a proponent to try to convince Cabinet to go for their proposal at that time but it never did materialize. It was worked into the overall Yellowknife general plan for the office plan. That is how it was handled. Thank you.

Thank you. Your time is up, Mr. Krutko. I have Mr. Roland, Mr. Ootes and Mr. Krutko. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is between the two parties to agree on a month-to-month basis. Even though it goes to two years or more, the department had a legal opinion that we could still exercise the lease extension. Thank you.

Thank you. We have considering asset management, 1998-99 main estimates, activity summary. Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.