Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. Mr. Speaker, the department is in the process of sending to Cabinet and then for tabling in this House a highway strategy within the next few days. Within there, we identify those routes that we plan to address over the next few years. Not one of the routes is specifically identified as the road to resources. That is simply because all our roads lead to resources. So it is really hard to identify any specific one as the road to resources.

However, in our strategy, we do identify improving Highway No. 4 and also we have some plans that we are working with industry at this point as to how we may be able to take over the operation and control of Lupin winter road into the mines. This is a strategy that is still under development and still has to be approved by Cabinet, but it is one of the options that we are considering. It is part of the highway strategy.

At this point in time, we have not addressed any thought towards putting a road down the North Slave as the Member suggested. This does not limit the ability for anyone to bring forward these suggestions and have open discussions and dialogue on future routes. As the Member suggests, maybe this would be the road to resources from their perspective.

What I am saying here, Mr. Speaker, is the department is open to all suggestions as to where our final route of an all-weather road would be into the North Slave Geological Province. The only route we have addressed at this point in time is the winter road. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the facts or what exactly would be used to determine the road to resources because, like I said, they are all roads to resources. What exactly would be used in determining an all-weather route down the North Slave, as the Member suggests. As I said, we are open to all suggestions. We are open to dialogue with the communities if they want to come forward with proposals.

If there is potential, we would have these included in the highway strategy eventually, but there would have to be a unified approach to this and also some form of an agreement from all the stakeholders that this is in fact the road that everyone wishes to identify as the all-weather route down the North Slave Geological Province. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Steen. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, although I have been responsible for a lot of things, my overall responsibility for deciding the future routes, as well as existing routes, transportation highway corridors, whatever, I only do that in consultation with Cabinet and with the rest of the House. I suppose in summary, Mr. Speaker, although I am responsible for all of the day-to-day operations of these facilities, the decision as to who decides what routes go where is a joint effort on all our parts. It is not really me who decides where these routes go. It is the Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to assure the Member and the House in general that we will consult with everyone, with everyone having the opportunity to put forward their opinions, to bring forward their proposals and suggestions, and then, if in the end there is a decision that there is a need for a road to resources as the Member suggests, we would then put that into the highway strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we used two sources of information to arrive at that as being a pretty close average for across the Northwest Territories. The one set of averages was based on Stats Can information. The other one was through information collected by the economic development section of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also have a concern with how we track occupancy. I am aware that one of the things we see in the North is long construction projects, where people are staying in hotels, specifically the construction teams, for periods of a month or longer. Does the Minister consider somebody staying in a hotel for longer than a month...would they still have to pay this tax? Would that tax be remitted for a 45-day stay? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the construction workers the Member is referring to are staying in a hotel and are paying a rate based on a daily rate, then it would not matter how long they stayed there. They would be charged and pay it in the hotel. If they were staying in a construction camp, for example, then that is a different matter. It would not be included in our calculations here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When a hotel owner tells us a person has stayed for the last 45 days, they are not going to charge them a daily rate. They are going to charge them a 45-day rate, what can we do when they do not charge them the hotel tax?