Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I did take the information from Hansard. My comment was since the Minister has recognized Kakisa and communities such as Kakisa as poor communities with unusual circumstances, I wanted to know if she would try to do something by contracting arrangements with the band councils to help the communities with the documents that are required for medical travel? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do understand the question now. I still struggle with the quote that is being read, but nevertheless, people requiring medical travel out of Kakisa, could they receive assistance through an existing office located in Kakisa? That is something that we could definitely look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my original question was with the Minister of Finance but my colleague Mr. Roland addressed it, so I will proceed with it from a different angle. We have heard a lot of talk about how we are going to try to attract Ottawa to get some more funding to address our needs as a government. I was hoping when the question was asked that the Minister would have a whole bundle of good news for us to take back to our constituents, but obviously that is not the case.

One of the things that I have been interested in is the fact that in all of our discussions in the House here as to how we are going to try to get more money from Ottawa, the name of Ethel Blondin-Andrew, our MP, does not come up very often. I was wondering if this government uses Ethel Blondin-Andrew extensively and try to get her to raise some issues in Ottawa for us and put some pressure on the government to address our fiscal needs in the Northwest Territories. I address my question to Mr. Handley.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we certainly do use our Member of Parliament extensively in several ways. First of all, she has been very useful in ensuring that the Premier, myself and others have been able to get meetings with appropriate federal Ministers and other Members of Parliament whenever we want to meet. That has been extremely useful.

Second, we have made her very aware of all of our interests in terms of the non-renewable resource development strategy, Common Ground, the economic development plan, and so on. She has been promoting that message in Ottawa for us.

Third is she has also been extremely effective in working with the Minister of DIAND and getting that department turned around on discussions on the possibility of an economic development agreement.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we use her extensively in every way we possibly can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In view of the fact that there is a federal election going on, we seem to be struggling all of the time with getting enough public awareness or pressure from government to come up with some kind of commitment. I was wondering if the government has any kind of strategy in place as far as following the election campaign, getting the frontrunners, the leaders of each party to try to make some commitment publicly as to their stand on how they look at our fiscal situation and how much importance they put on supplying us with extra funds so that we can proceed with our economic development.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have sent the information to our Member of Parliament. I believe we have also sent it to the other political parties as well. If it has not gone out to them, it will be done shortly. We would like to see Northern issues on the agenda. We would like to see it on the agenda of every party. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I take it then that this government will have Members or certain individuals going to public forums that are put on by leaders of this country, or even the party, to ask specific questions in a public forum to try to get some commitments out of them?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, no, we do not have any strategy or any plan to have Members of the government attend forums and raise those kinds of specific questions at those events. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would venture to say that that would probably be a very good strategy to try to get the leaders to make a commitment publicly. Would the Minister attempt to look into that possibility and maybe look at some good public forums to address the issues?

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

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member's suggestion. Yes, I will look into it and assess the merits of doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Sort of like a team of provocateurs. 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.

Mr. Speaker, the figure of $30 million is a pretty general estimate that is put together largely by the Northwest Territories Tourism Association along with some people from our staff. I expect it does include friends and relatives who might be coming up here as tourists. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Handley. The time for question period has expired. I will allow Mr. Bell to conclude his supplementary.