Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that as a partial notice. Could the Minister indicate whether or not he has had any discussions with the chair of the Public Utilities Board in regards to this review? Specifically, making sure that any kind of improvement or changes to the Public Utilities Board, the regulations and act reflects the energy strategy that the territorial government says they are working on. The two are directly linked. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From what I am aware of, there is a consultation process. I believe part of the board's mandate is to consider the input from various interest groups. That is the answer to the Member's question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Final supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will restate the question that was asked in regards to the work that has been done at the Public Utilities Board. Has the Minister been in contact with Mr. Hill to ensure that whatever work was done to upgrade the Public Utilities Board and the regulations will fit and be congruent with whatever energy strategy is being put forward by the government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have been in contact with the chairman and he advised me that there is ongoing work in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. 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 the Department of Transportation, Mr. Vince Steen. It is regarding a question I asked earlier and relates to the statement that I made. I had asked if they have a contingency fund in place, especially if they have difficulties down the road with maintaining roads.

The reason I say that, Mr. Speaker, is because I see, looking through the budgets, especially in my area, Highway No. 8, I see some $500,000 was taken out of the original $2.5 million that was designated for the next five years. I think the same thing applied on Highway No. 5.

Almost 50 percent of the budget for Transportation is being implemented on Highway No. 3, and yet we find ourselves having to deal with more in regards to the economic impacts that are facing us with oil and gas developments expanding in the Beaufort Delta, Fort Liard and in the Mackenzie Valley.

I would like to ask the Minister, when will he reinstate the amounts that were designated in the five-year capital plan? When will he distribute those funds, knowing that they were withdrawn. In the case of my highway, there was $500,000 withdrawn. Will that money be put back into the budget? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am not sure when the government will be putting the funding back that we are deferring for capital. This applies not only to highways but it applies to other capital projects as well that have been deferred.

For how long, that will depend on our fiscal situation in the future. However, the department has made a point, and I am sure that the Legislative Assembly will agree with the department, that we can only defer capital expenditures for so long. At some point in time, we are going to have to address exactly how we are going to put the money back and how we are going to get the capital works back up to where they should be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister can tell me exactly when he intends to stop the cuts that are presently taking place, especially on Highway No. 8 and Highway No. 5? When will we know that these cuts will no longer take place? I, for one, feel uncomfortable. It seems like all of the cuts are taking place in the ridings in the Mackenzie Delta in the last couple of years. Yet on Highway No. 3, no cuts have taken place in a number of years. When will the Minister balance out these cuts and ensure that no more cuts take place where the cuts have already happened, and start cutting where they have not yet happened? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department draws up capital based on where we identify the major traffic and the impact of development on the highway sections. Highway No. 3 was identified not only by this government but previous governments as a high priority for bringing that highway up to national standards.

The funding we have identified for this particular stretch of highway is reflective of the traffic volumes and the demand on the highway. My department is not planning and will not will be putting in place any cuts that will serve to make highways unsafe. We try to maintain a budget that we can address any specific problems that develop on highways.

One of the options we have is if we do not have sufficient funding in the budget for the year, we would then go for a supplementary appropriation.

Of course, all the funding is approved by the Legislative Assembly no matter what we do with it. Again, the department does not do this in isolation. It does it with full input from the Legislative Assembly through the budget process.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is unfair, especially socially and economically. A lot of regions do not have the benefits that regions like Yellowknife have where you get the diamond industry and a lot of spin offs from the secondary industries that come with it. Yet, in the Mackenzie Delta where we depend on these contracts, I see a major cut.

Mr. Speaker, some $7,689,000 of the Transportation budget goes into one highway, yet the total budget of the Transportation highway budget totals $16 million. Almost half of that budget goes into one highway.

I would like to ask the Minister why is there not consideration given to the economic benefit that comes from this type of contract? When will he distribute it fairly so all people in the North get the fair share of this money distributed based on need, not just putting it all in one highway? We have some 2,000 kilometres of highway, yet we are only talking 300 kilometres here.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Members are reminded to make their preambles shorter and shorter as we get into supplementaries. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Transportation, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member brings up a very valid point. It is unfortunate that the department cannot distribute a budget based on spreading it evenly through the regions. Our budget is based on where the need is, based on the traffic volume. Where the major expenses are, of course, is reflective of the traffic volume.

Like I said, the department would have been very willing to work with the communities in trying to spread the dollars around reflective of what we have for that particular region.

I think a good example of that is what the Member brought up yesterday about the access road programs. The department is fully aware of how much people need economic development activity in the region, including highway construction or road construction of any nature. However, we do not base the budget on make-work programs; we base our budget on highway needs and the traffic volumes on those particular stretches of highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there were no cuts whatsoever on Highway No.3; yet there were cuts on Highway No. 8 and Highway No. 5 to the tune of $1 million.

I would like to ask the Minister again, will he, the next time he makes any cuts, consider cutting where half the budget is right now, which is Highway No. 3? So if any cuts take place in the future will he seriously consider cutting Highway No. 3?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department would be glad to respond the Member's question and affirm that we do consider cuts every year on Highway No. 3. We consider cuts all over, but then we respond to the traffic volume. We definitely consider cuts to Highway No. 3. It is just that we do not put in place any obvious cuts to Highway No. 3, but it is not just certain sections of the highway that were being cut in the department's budget.

We have been asked, along with every other department, to reduce our expenditures. We have done that and we have tried to spread those reductions all across our operations, highways, airports and ferries. It is not just highways. I hope that my response to the Member will be taken as that we do consider cuts to Highway No. 3.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.