Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we will certainly support all of those initiatives, whether it is fur manufacturing, taxidermy, or support to young trappers. We have made a lot of efforts in the past, and we have spent millions of dollars trying to support the fur manufacturing industry. It has not worked as well as we have liked. We have to review that. That is ongoing right now. We need to get into the fur value-added the same way we were diamond value-added, but we have to do it right. We have to do it in a way that is responsible and hopefully profitable. I have seen some good work coming out of the little factory in Fort Simpson that is well designed. I think that has a lot of potential. There are a lot of avenues to this and we continue to support it. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I did not refer to a strategy because we already have so many strategies going on. I told my staff I am not going to ask them to develop any new strategies right now. Let us get the ones underway that we have done first.

-- Applause

However, we do take the fur industry seriously. We will continue to invest as much money as we can into it. We need to invest responsibly. We need to invest in a way that is going to get a maximum return and I am committed to doing that as soon as possible.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I raised in my Member's statement, there is concern once again growing in my community regarding the young offenders facility in Inuvik. Mr. Speaker, this is a project that was designated in the 13th Assembly and put in the books. There was a class D figure estimate put in the books looking at the project, as is in all government capital infrastructure programs, a class D estimate because they are not sure of the specific location and so on.

Mr. Speaker, this issue is a very big concern because we are being told now the cost is going up and the community, as I said in my Member's statement, has already agreed to fund the utilidor extension so that is at no cost to the department. However, we are being told now that there is more money required and that is a concern. Now the Minister responsible for Justice, in speaking to him, has confirmed that he still supports the project in Inuvik.

However, I received a copy of a letter that was sent to the honourable Roger Allen and it talks about the support for it continuing on, but there is one sentence, Mr. Speaker, that draws some serious concern. It states at the same time planners are searching for alternative solutions in Inuvik and other communities in case the Inuvik option is no longer viable, Mr. Speaker, I would like the Minister responsible for Justice to clarify, for the record, for myself and the people of Inuvik and those families affected by their children going to the southern part of the territory where all the facilities lie, will he commit to having this project remain in the community of Inuvik?

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Minister Antoine. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for the first part of his response, still the support is ther. I am little concerned at this time. As the Minister said, there has been some work done; geotech, surveying, rezoning and a commitment by the Town of Inuvik for over $350,000 for this project. Can the Minister tell us what class estimate is now being used as we spoke earlier? It started with a class D. What level are we at right now?

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. 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, it is true that the price of fuel has gone up about 24 percent over the past 20 months and it is a serious concern to all of our people in the Territories. It is serious and I do not take that lightly at all. Howevere, our government takes a much broader approach to resolving our problem. I do not think handing out cheques to people is really what people want each time the price of fuel goes up and next week it will be the price of eggs going up. The people do not want us just to hand out cheques to help them with their fuel. What they want is an economy in the Northwest Territories. That is what we are working on.

Am I doing anything? We have been working incredibly hard and long to get an economy going in the Northwest Territories so that people can afford to live here and live comfortably and pay their own bills. We have done a lot of things, and I think we are seeing signs of our economy turning around. So I take a much broader approach to this issue than just helping out people with little cheques here and there.

Having said that, there are a number of things we have done over the past year. Some of the main ones we have done are: we have continued programs. We have a power subsidy program that continues in spite of hard times. We have a seniors' home heating subsidy that continues. We have, as a Member mentioned in his Member's statement, not adjusted our fuel prices even though they are ad valorum. We have kept them down. That saved people in the Territories $2 million over the last couple of years. We continued the same programs of assisting people through public housing and social assistance. We have certainly increased people's ability to pay for fuel through the salary negotiations and agreement with teachers. We have now reached a tentative agreement with the UNW. We are working with industry. So there are a whole lot of things we are doing to make this a good place to live. I think we need to continue to have that broad approach, not focus on following other examples of writing out little cheques for everybody to help them pay their way. That is not going to develop an economy. Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am staggered by the Finance Minister's response. He does not even seem to be able to relate. He talks about the people of the Northwest Territories do not want this, they want that. Mr. Speaker, you would think the Finance Minister does not own a home, does not drive a vehicle. I just cannot understand why he cannot relate. His answer is just to me...I do not understand it, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Finance Minister even tell us if he knows what the cost of a litre of automobile fuel is today in Yellowknife? He cannot relate, Mr. Speaker. Can he answer that question?

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

I use a lot of fuel myself and I am sorry I stagger the Member, but I did not mean to have that impact. I will try not to stagger him too much. The cost of a litre of fuel, I do not know if we are talking about gasoline or diesel or whatever it might be. I fill my truck up every week and I pay for gasoline. I run a generator in my house and I use heating oil for that. Again, I do not know the exact amounts I pay. I pay my bills and do not look at exactly what they are. I know the price of fuel has gone up considerably. I know it has gone up...

Order, please.