I do say that the criteria that were used are that if there is an airport within three hours driving on the highway system, then it does not warrant an airport. This is the condition that the department has been using in regard to Rae-Edzo.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the Minister for that. I will ask him if Rae-Edzo did not require an airport because of being within three hours of another airport or a community, I am not sure exactly what the Minister is saying, can he tell me how Rae-Edzo meets any criteria to begin construction of an airport? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the community of Rae-Edzo is building an airport on their own community initiative. They approached us for funding and we told them we did not have any, so they went ahead and started building their own airport with their own funding, I think there is some from the federal government. We provided them with technical advice and support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Going on to the Yellowknife airport, I have heard concerns about the availability or potential lack of availability of lots at the Yellowknife airport. Can the Minister give me some information regarding the number of lots that would be available for construction and what planning is in place to provide additional lots, if there is a shortage? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since this government had taken over the Yellowknife airport from the federal government, we have been assessing the airport operations and looking at the availability of lots. As a result of that, there is a Yellowknife Airport Development Plan that is going out for request for proposals shortly. This one will have a real comprehensive look at the airport and develop a plan on how to deal with the concerns that the honourable Member is mentioning here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I missed the beginning of the Minister's statement and he may have addressed it, but I would ask him if he could again identify, are there any lots available right now for development where a developer would have access to runways? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are no lots available at this specific time. We have to recognize that there are a lot of vacant industrial lots in the Kam Lake Industrial Park, so the department is working a bit with the city of Yellowknife to try and minimize the disruption there so the types of businesses that we would hope would relocate into this expanded airport properties, on basically the FOL side of the airport which are the airport specific type businesses, is what we hope to attract. I guess the other part of that is that the prices that we are going to be renting these lots for will be market-based so there will be no perceived advantage to being out there. It will cost you the same to locate in other parts of

Yellowknife and we are using the industrial lots along the Old Airport Road which are the highest priced industrial land in Yellowknife, as the basis of the market for that land out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When will the Minister foresee having some lots available? I am kind of shocked that there is not some availability of land for airport related activities. We have a responsibility as a government, if they are going to maintain control of these particular areas such as airports, we have a responsibility to ensure that there are facilities, or at least developed land available for the airport related activities. With the potentials for the airport related activities coming out of the diamond mines, it is imperative that immediate steps are taken to ensure that there are some lots available for construction there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is land around the Yellowknife airport and those lots that were available within the last year have been all leased out. There are preliminary plans already drawn up by the department of how they foresee expanding availability of lots in the Yellowknife airport, however, we would like to do it in a coordinated approach. As I said, there is a request for a proposal that is going out very shortly and we do not foresee it to take very long before we do have an approved version of the plan for Yellowknife. I do not know how long it is going to take, but we do not see it being that long. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, under airports, the department states that it has the responsibility and provision for maintenance and operation, the rehabilitation and upgrading of all 52 public airports in the Northwest Territories. Why is it then that when we had a problem, for example, the navigational aids in Iqaluit, that the department could not do anything about it? We had to get NAV Canada to fly in from Ottawa with a special plane to do that. It is the case now then, indeed, all the operations and maintenance of navigation aids and so on, at airports, is the responsibility of NAV Canada and not the Department of Transportation? Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, all these NAV Canada aids are the responsibility of NAV Canada now. Thank you.

On the airports issue, I talked earlier about the ERS situation. I wonder if the Minister and staff have an update on the ERS situation and the discussions that occurred in Ottawa and the placement of the 28 airports under the National Airport Policy. Thank you.