Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs. It is with regard to the problem they have in Fort McPherson with regard to the water system costs. As a department, you are there to serve the municipalities and the system whenever they find themselves in difficulty, especially when they are running a deficit. I would like to ask the Minister, knowing that they are in a deficit situation, can the Minister assist in areas of costs that are unforeseen or there is a possibility of assisting communities to do audits or look at the possibility of what legal status they have? Is the Minister able to assist the community knowing that they do not have the resources to do an in-depth audit on the costs of the water system in Fort McPherson in 1999-2000?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned earlier that we do not have any internal funds to provide for extraordinary funding. There is always a letter of request coming from across the Northwest Territories for us to assist communities that are in some deficit problems. We do have a plan of action to provide. We do have our staff go into the communities to help various communities work out some of the long-range problems and establish some long-range plans. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Allen. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I assume the department is the one with the high priced help and they have these resource people in-house. In light of the agreement that I mentioned earlier that is presently at hand and as far as my understanding has not been followed to date with regard to the water/sewage operation agreement between the hamlet of Fort McPherson and Public Works, will he consider getting a legal review with regard to this agreement between the hamlet of Fort McPherson and the Department of Public Works?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I am not committed to doing an overall legal review. Although we have begun the process of working with the community trying to establish if some of those costs were legitimate, if they were not, then we will try to take some appropriate action to correct them. Again, I made a commitment earlier this afternoon that we will work with the communities to try to establish a recovery plan. So hopefully that will meet the satisfaction of not only the Member, but also of the mayor and his staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Allen. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister if it is possible to send some of his resource people from Yellowknife who are in charge of looking at the financial situation of municipalities and also people in his shop who are the legal beagles to go in and see what they can do by going to the communities and sitting down and reviewing the audit and also give them a legal opinion on what this agreement really means. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We recognize there is a problem and I will certainly undertake further discussion on how we can assist the community in recovering some of the debt problems with regard to their water system. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Allen. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell me is there a possibility of forgiving some of these costs or writing them off through the budgetary process or through the supplementary process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of a short answer, I have been advised that all additional funding would have to go through a supplementary appropriation. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and it is further to the issue raised by my colleague from Hay River North.

The issue of governance, of course, comes up when you look at possible disbanding of the DEC in the South Slave. I know for some time, years as a matter of fact, there have been discussions of models of governance. The South Slave is unique given the multitude of health boards, the DEAs, the DECs. My question to the Minister is, will any decisions being made in regard to the DEC's future be done within the broader context of these other governance issues that affect the region as well as every region in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The initial effort will be to look at the issues with regard to how the creation of another DEC will affect the region as a whole and what impact it will have financially and administratively. I think we are going to concentrate on that, Mr. Speaker, so that we get an understanding of how the Hay River Reserve will be affected, how Enterprise will be affected and the other communities. The DEC is at the moment composed of a number of communities; Lutselk'e, Fort Resolution and Fort Smith as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister be consulting with his colleagues from Health and Social Services and Housing, for example, where there are similar interests? Other regions are looking at the community service model that the Dogribs have undertaken and invested in, for example, and I know there have been some discussions in Fort Smith about the same kind of approach. My concern is that the focus not be too narrow, that significant decisions be made in a narrow focus and, at the same time, there are broader issues in terms of the possible benefit of community service boards in the South Slave. So will the Minister be consulting with his colleagues to make sure that they have a broad approach to this very complex issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the act, I have a total of 90 days in which to respond to the request by Hay River. We may not have adequate time to address the whole governance issue in all respects as the Member has indicated. However, I am familiar with what he is suggesting, that we do take into consideration other areas where, for example, in the case of the Dogribs, we have a community service board that provides services both in education and health and social services. But, Mr. Speaker, our time frame here does have limitations and I do need to respond to that, so I am not sure what can be accomplished within that time frame. Thank you.