Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I apologize for that. I could not give the Member a specific example of what part of the Med-Emerg Report was or is being used to date in the health care system. I would have to get back to the Member with that, but I do know that part of the Med-Emerg Report was dealing with the P3 issue to a certain degree of alternate financing within health care and the facilities we use, so I know there were a number of areas that have been included. As I stated earlier, in the ministerial forum that I will be

sending out here over the spring, summer and hopefully coming to a conclusion in early fall, will include some of the information we received through the Med-Emerg Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Med-Emerg Report, I understand, was an exercise in collecting and compiling a very comprehensive overview of health care services in the Northwest Territories. Could the Minister please tell us what the different slant or the different purpose is of the ministerial forum which now he is going to commission to go out and collect information as well? Could he identify for us why this would be different than the information solicited by the Med-Emerg Report? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ministerial forum that we are proposing to send out will be focused on the people and how they feel the system is being used, but it will have a focus to it. As I said earlier, we will be taking some of the information from existing work that has been done on the other strategies and combining that and getting response from the people of the Northwest Territories.

The Med-Emerg Report itself, was more of an internal process with some consultants and the professional end of it and had some input from the health boards. This one is going to go further out into the public and get some response back as well as sharing information on the concerns we have as the Department of Health and Social Services in sustainability and where we are going with our system as we know it, and trying to get some concrete answers as to what the future holds and preparing future Assemblies for the direction they will go with in Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, how soon could the Minister anticipate and would he consider tabling in this House prior to the commencement of the ministerial forum on health and Social Services, the anticipated cost and also the terms of reference of this particular forum. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ministerial forum, right now the terms of reference I have been working on those with the department and we are close to bringing those to the attention of the Members. I am planning, before the end of the recess of the session, that I will have a letter out to Members requesting a name from them as well, letters and calls will be going out to organizations within the territory for possible representatives to be named to this forum. As I said earlier, hopefully from that this process will be a much more public process and will be set up in an atmosphere were we are trying to get some concrete feedback on the system and how we operate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some real concerns regarding the statement made by the Minister of Finance in the committee of the whole. It is to do with the incremental cost that was occurred by this government for division, especially the amount of money that was incurred by this government, and the Western Territory for the cost of division. Mr. Speaker, I was under the assumption by the previous Minister of Finance, that do not worry, everything is okay, the federal government will pick up the tab.

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But, yet, Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves today without money for education or health. We are short of money and we are stuck holding the bag for the cost of division. I would like to ask the Minister of Finance exactly why were we caught with the cost of division in the Western Territory?

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I comment as to why the federal government has refused to live up to, what we believe was their obligation to pay for the incremental costs of division, but I do know that they have been approached many times. We had initially been led to believe that there would be some support for all additional costs this government incurred, but, unfortunately, we have been unable to convince the federal government to follow through and provide that level of support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe as Members on this side of the House we were mislead by the previous Minister of Finance to agreeing, from the western prospective that we will be able to retrieve these costs, and the basic costs we were talking about were in the millions of dollars

because of the amount of money we spent on training people. In regard to the Western Territory, the cost of moving people from the Yellowknife headquarters office to the Iqaluit office and also to the regional centres in the east. Can the Minister tell me exactly what the cost is that this government incurred, basically the cost for us to assist in division and the cost to this government at this time? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said yesterday in committee of the whole, I have been informed soft costs were not tracked for the last while because it became very clear that the federal government was absolutely refusing to pay those costs. I would like to make it clear that it is not millions of dollars, what we are talking about is staff time. Particularly time for the deputy ministers and other senior staff to assist in setting up policies and procedures and getting the process of division done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find it interesting that the Minister referenced that they knew for some time that this decision was made by Ottawa, yet as Members in this House, we were never told that that decision was made by the people in Ottawa that we will not be recouping our money for the incremental costs of government. When did this government know that decision was made by Ottawa?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot answer that question. I do not know when the government actually knew. I think the presentations were made to the federal government on a continuing basis right up until the point of the division of the territories requesting their consideration for these incremental funds. I remember hearing the previous Minister being questioned in the House, and his response being that the federal government had not yet agreed to fund the amounts on a specific dollar basis. The federal government have said no on several occasions and I believe that was reported to the House previously, but I would have to check with the department and previous Hansards to see whether or not that was the case.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I for one, do not believe we should just give up on this endeavour of trying to recoup those costs from the federal government, or even from the Nunavut government in the east. This cost was procured by that government and I believe we should continue the effort to try and retrieve those cost. For us to say let us not worry about it and we will try to gain it through another route, it may be a long time before we can gain it through the other route. I would like to ask the Minister, will he continue to lobby his federal counterparts in Ottawa and also the Minister of Finance in the federal government and also our Prime Minister to see exactly why were we stuck with those costs which we were made to understand that we would not be incurring those costs in this government?