Thank you. The question has been taken as noticed. Oral questions. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Antoine. In my Member's statement today, I spoke about the poor condition of the highway between Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Antoine, if he could provide this House with a brief update of the work planned to upgrade this highway and bring it up to standard of the highway, which is in excellent condition south of Rae? Could he address the amount of money that was approved in the Legislature last February? I would appreciate some background. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The honourable Minister for Transportation, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the reconstruction of Highway 3 from the Rae turnoff to Yellowknife, the funding for beginning of this construction was approved in this Legislative Assembly last budget session. The department's capital plan, was proposed to start construction this fall. We have made arrangements to begin clearing from the Rae turnoff this way to about Stagg River, which is about 15 kilometres and from Yellowknife towards Rae another section. We have negotiated with the Dogrib Corporation out of Rae to do some clearing and we have negotiated with the band from Yellowknife to do some clearing on the Yellowknife end of it. That work will start this fall and later on this fall, there will be a public-tender issued to begin the actual start of the work. They will be working in the fall after freeze-up in these two areas. Thank you.

Thank you. Oral question. Supplementary, Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may recall there were other highways and work on highways and upgrades also approved in that budget. Could the Minister give us an update on where those particular improvements are at this stage, compared to the sections he mentioned from Rae and from Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the honourable Member could be more specific about his question? He mentioned he wanted to compare the beginning of the construction of the highway between Edzo to Yellowknife compared to other projects. It would be worthwhile for me to know specifically which project he is making reference to. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was wanting the Minister to give us some information on why it is taking so long. If this budget was approved last February, why is it taking so long to see some action on the construction of this highway? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Henry. The microphone was off when you made that last sentence. Perhaps I will allow the Minister to answer and take it from there. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Rae-Edzo section of this highway has been tendered as a design built contract and the requests for proposals was submitted to three project teams who pre-qualified through a call for expressions of interest. The proposal calls will close on October 14th with a tentative award date for November 12th. It is expected that the successful team which would start construction in December with completion of construction scheduled for July 15, 2000. The Yellowknife section has been designed by the Department of Transportation staff and it has been scheduled to publicly start tendering on October 26th. It is anticipated that construction of this section will start in December of this year with a completion in March 2000.

Mr. Speaker, the application for land use permits were submitted for each separate section of the project which was to be tendered this year. Upon receipt of these applications, DIAND ruled that the Department of Transportation could not apply for permits for separate sections, but must apply for a land use permit for the entire section of Highway 3 from Edzo to Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, the department had done some intensive work on the two specific sections and made two separate applications, but DIAND ruled that we should make one big application for the entire length, so the department had to do some more work between the two sections that were out there. This ruling resulted in a complicated process with extended timelines and that required the Department of Transportation to obtain and provide information for the middle section of the highway, as well, even though it is not scheduled to be tendered until future years.

To date, the Department of Transportation has not obtained a land use permit and is currently working to obtain additional information required for the process. This caused some delays because of the necessity to obtain the land use permit and it was necessary to redefine the scope of the work on the Yellowknife end of the project. As a result, the late tendering dates for both projects allows additional time to obtain this land use permit. Although the Department of Transportation does not currently have the permit, we expect that....

That is a lot of detail for oral questions. I think the honourable Minister has answered the question. Mr. Henry, would you like the use of the final supplementary? Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if I understood the Minister correctly, he suggested that he had anticipated the work would begin in December of this year and it would be completed in the year 2000. Could the Minister explain why it is going to take so long? He did suggest that this is a multi-year project and if a similar amount is approved in next year's budget, or is accelerated, we are going to have a lot of overlaps. How does the Minister propose to handle this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these two projects are multi-year contracts, as the honourable Member indicated. The Rae-Edzo section is a design built and we have a request for proposals out there. This is a two-year project and the amount of money which we have allocated for it will require reconstruction. As you know, to rebuild that section of the road, because it is in the precambrian shield similar to the terrain around Yellowknife, is very difficult. It is not like the section from Edzo south where you do not have any rocks. I guess that is why my predecessors left it until the very end to complete because it is very difficult. My understanding of the amount of money that we spend on the average between Edzo and down south is about $300,000 per kilometre and I understand that the section we are going to build is going to be three times that amount per kilometre. We are looking at a different type of terrain that we have not done and we need two years to complete the work that was approved in the House. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member for Yellowknife North, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you. The Minister for Health and Social Services, Mr. Ng.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the honourable Member for giving me a bit of advance notice on this issue in order to give us an opportunity to check on it. It is light treatment for psoriasis and eczema. It is my understanding, after having my staff confirm with the Stanton Regional Health Board personnel, that they are slated to put it into effect in late November or December. As it stands now, they are 90 per cent sure that the program will be run out of the clinic at the medical centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kivallivik, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for Division, Mr. Todd. Some time ago in Rankin Inlet, we discussed the decentralized model and the various jobs that would be transferred to the various communities and so forth. As of this date, I do not believe we have heard what the final plan is or the final modifications or changes to the decentralized model. Could the Minister update us as to where things stand to date?

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. The Minister responsible for Division Secretariat, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just conferring with my colleague here, Mr. Arlooktoo. As I recollect, at the Rankin Inlet Summit, if you would like to call it that, we had asked at that time for the Interim Commissioner to outline to all parties what changes, if any, he was going to make in relationship to the Footprints in the Snow I and II. At that time it was not presented, but there was a commitment made by him to present that to the parties as quickly as possible. To date we have not received it, but it is my understanding that there is a meeting planned for early next week between Mr. Anawak, Mr. Kusugak and Mr. Arlooktoo and the federal Minister. I am hoping during that meeting that we will receive some paper which will indicate what changes, if any, he intends to make.

At the same time, I am hopeful that we will receive from Mr. Kusugak an update as to where the construction lies in relation to the infrastructure as some of that still needs to be done to meet the decentralized initiatives that the government and all parties support. Unfortunately, today I cannot give my honourable colleague a more clear reply than that, but I am optimistic that by the middle or by the end of next week either myself or Mr. Arlooktoo will be able to provide him and all Members in the House with an update as to where that lies. Thank you.