Mr. Todd.

The parties at the table are the parties that have been at the table from the very beginning that is the federal government, the territorial government, NTI, Interim Commissioner and the Western Coalition. These parties have been there from the beginning and all issues that relate to division. As I said earlier, we have, in an effort to see if we can bring all the players to the table, brought on a skilled facilitator who has no direct interest in this issue. He is out of Toronto, I believe. With respect to time, I think we have to be a little careful in setting deadlines when we are in these sensitive negotiations. I, at this time, would be reluctant to say we are going to solve the problem in seven days, ten days or 21 days. We have 300 days left. I am sure, prior to April 1, 1999, common sense will prevail, and the facilitator will reach, I hope, an appropriate compromise that satisfies all parties, east and west. Thank you.

--Applause

Oral questions. Mr. Krutko.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member representing his community and what do they have to do to get a road? It is a long process. I can only say that requesting a community access into Aklavik from the existing road system is not a simple, easy task. It probably has to go through a long process. The main thing is that the financial resources are not there. As well, there are other priorities out there. How do we priorize it, is another thing? I understand it is probably a request from the community at first, but the capacity of this government to do it is not there. It will have to be viewed as a long term process. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has a planning section in our department and certainly I could make a commitment that the personnel in the department would go to the community and sit down and listen to requests and take it from there. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the highway strategy is an initiative of this government to look at the Four Road Project. This is the direction of this government, to look at what is there. We acknowledge there are numerous transportation needs across the Northwest Territories and we must continue to look for different ways, new and improved ways of improving the transportation services we have.

The focus now is to maintain what we have, as best we can and focus on new initiatives which could produce significant return for investment in the short term. With the different discussions over the years of the Mackenzie Valley Highway extension that has been requested for many years, we are going to take a look at that. We are taking a look at the recent request from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk that has been there for a while. There is some push from that side, so we are going to take a look at that. The Slave Geologic Province Transportation Corridor from Yellowknife north into the rich mineral areas to the north of us, with the gold mines that are there, the potential of the development of the diamond mines, we have to take a close look at that as well. We are taking a look at that and looking at the reconstruction of the Highway No. 3 between Rae and Yellowknife, to see if we can speed it up. These are the four initiatives the government has laid down.

We are planning to have stakeholders' meetings in three of the areas. For the Slave Geological Province on June 4, 1998 here in Yellowknife, I would like to bring the bands, stakeholders, and metis locals, the mayors, business leaders and MLAs of the area, and get them together to have a frank discussion of what it would mean. We are also planning to have another stakeholder meeting in Norman Wells, June 9, 1998, to discuss the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We are having a get together for the Tuk-Inuvik road in Inuvik on June 10, 1998. Perhaps the honourable Member, Mr. Krutko, who is invited to this meeting in Inuvik can raise his concerns at that time. It might be an opportune time to get his concerns raised. Other than that, we have set the course on this strategy. If there are any additional requests, we will be receiving it all the time. We just received a request from Nahanni Butte recently of putting in a road, the resources into the Nahanni area for the Cadillac Mine area. There are other interests out there who are vying for the priority. My suggestion is to bring this concern up at the Inuvik meeting. Thank you.

Oral questions. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the initiative is a new initiative and we would like to move on it and would like to have some substance for the Premier when the western Ministers are here, to try to get all the stakeholders together at these three different meetings and get some direction from the stakeholders. Whatever develops out of it, there are a lot of other initiatives. This is just one initiative to try to get the stakeholders together first. There are other initiatives to undertake and to study, like identification and analysis of the project financial alternates, which my honourable colleagues, Mr. Todd and I were working on, socio-economic impact benefit cost analysis, route analysis, preliminary engineering environmental scoping and collection of baseline information. All this work has to get done. I am the lead Minister in this initiative and the report will come to me. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Rabesca.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was alluding to in my Member's statement, Rae Lakes has some serious concerns regarding their Arctic airport facilities. My understanding is these concerns must be addressed prior to the airport being certified by Transport Canada. My question to the Minister of Transportation, the honourable Jim Antoine is, would he be prepared to meet with the community to ensure these concerns are cleared up, in order for them to continue with their certification of this airport? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly I am prepared to meet with the community in this regard. The department is engaged with the community now to try to arrange a visit to complete the safety audits. The proposed meeting is the third week in June. We are waiting for the community to confirm at this time.

Oral questions. Mr. Evaloarjuk.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Premier, in the absence of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I spoke about the problems of the Isuma Production Company. Because culture is a very important issue, I support the project that Isuma Production is trying to complete. I think their film will be beneficial to many people and this is why I raised my concern for its funding, which has since been cut off.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment if he would write a letter to Telefilm Canada to continue funding for the Atanajua film, in order for them to complete their project in a timely manner? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. (Translation ends)