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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier, regarding the television coverage being received by the Yukon Premier in her lobbying effort in Calgary to attract the oil and gas industry to open up the oil and gas areas in the Yukon, the Eton Plains area in the southern part of the Yukon and also pushing for a pipeline down the Dempster corridor.

I know for a fact that we have had several meetings in Calgary and there have been several attempts to meet with industry, but I believe that we have to take it up one notch higher. I believe the Premier should make an effort to continue the lobbying efforts. During the World Petroleum Conference in Calgary, the Premier had other obligations and was not able to meet with industry. There were people within industry who wanted to meet with the Premier and still want to meet with the Premier.

So I would like to ask the Premier, will the Premier be traveling to Calgary in the next short time to meet with industry, to lobby for the people of the Northwest Territories to try to attract the oil and gas industry and the pipeline companies to consider building a pipeline down the valley and opening up oil and gas reserves? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The World Petroleum Conference in Calgary was a huge event. We did make sure that many of our Ministers and staff were there to take advantage of the opportunities to get our message and agenda out there to industry. Members should be aware that I have been working for the last two or three years to promote the North as a place for industry to return in pursuit of oil and gas exploration. We are meeting regularly with industry, with oil companies, both in Calgary and here in the Northwest Territories.

It is something that we have worked on relentlessly. I did take, I think, two days off during the time of the World Petroleum Conference as a holiday. I am now ready, as soon as the Session completes, to continue to work with industry to find opportunities to get our message out about our agenda on increasing business with industry, with oil and gas companies, with diamond companies, with promoting the North as a place for tourists to visit, to do that through every possible means we can take advantage of. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in light of the oil and gas interest, there will be an oil and gas sale lease which will be coming out, I believe, in the middle of August, or early August. So I would like to ask the Premier, can the Premier tell us when he intends to travel to Calgary to continue with these meetings?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had originally indicated to possibly attending some meetings and discussions with oil and gas companies tomorrow and Saturday. However, because of the uncertainty of how long the Session would continue, we have not made the firm commitments that were required.

So Members should be aware, the intent was to be there tomorrow, but because of the Session and the need to be here to attend to business and Session, we had not made the commitment to attend in Calgary. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to ask the Premier if it is a possibility that Members of the House who will be affected by oil and gas development, will also have an opportunity to work with you, to continue to lobby for their particular regions to ensure that the economic and social conditions are taken into consideration. To try and assist you in your lobbying efforts, because we, as Members affected, would like to be able to partake in these meetings with industry so that we can also promote our different ridings that will be affected by these developments.

So will the Minister consider the possibility of Members who are affected by the oil and gas industry to take part in these meetings?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are, as a Cabinet, continuing to be open to that. I believe the message that, as Premier, Ministers and as a Cabinet, we are unveiling on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories is a message that is supported and continues to be articulated by all Members of this Legislature. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the other area that I feel that we have to continue to work side by side in this is with the aboriginal working group that has been formed, to see how they are going to do their work to assist the aboriginal people that directed them to pull together an agreement, to see their participation and what their involvement is going to be in the ownership and development of a pipeline. So I would like to ask the Premier, will you also ensure that those groups are involved and that we work along with them to ensure that we get as much benefit out of the oil and gas industry?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The aboriginal organizations' political leadership have sent a message to industry and to Ottawa, that they are unanimous in their political support of a pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley, and they indicated the conditions. The aboriginal business leaders, following that, have started work and have put together a working group. They now have a mandated working group in place to begin the process to work towards a proposal for a pipeline that would be owned and managed all or in part by a business consortium. Aboriginal leaders will spearhead that.

Members should be aware that when I met with the Prime Minister earlier this year, I had indicated to him this business initiative lead by Nellie Cournoyea, of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and Chief Harry Deneron, on behalf of the chiefs and the Metis leaders of the Mackenzie Valley. I had indicated to him at the time that he should be prepared to meet with the leaders should they request a meeting, and I believe they were prepared to do so at the time. So the stage is set for the aboriginal leaders to meet with the Prime Minister at a time and place of mutual convenience. That work has been done.

Of course, all the work that we do with industry and the federal government is shared and the added information is made available to the aboriginal leaders. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Item 6, oral questions. the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand the frustration of the community given the amount of smoke that it is creating and the fact that it is burning in the caribou area. It is unfortunate that these things happen. On the day that the fire was spotted, I think that it was on the 27th, the fire was relatively small. There were a lot of other fires and extreme conditions right across the southern part of the Northwest Territories. The decision was made, at that time, not to fight the fire. That decision is made by the regional fire people who are responsible for that area.

Since that time the fire has been monitored, and it is true, there was no action taken on the fire besides monitoring it, until July 3rd. Since that time we have continued to have aircraft and crews working on the fire to try to contain it. The fire is presently over 1,600 hectares. It is locked in on the north by an old burn and on the west, I believe, by a number lakes. It is mainly on the south side of the fire that action is being taken today. Thank you.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I agree with the Member that it is costing us money. It is costing us about $60,000 a day right now to fight that fire with the aircraft and the crews we have on it.

In terms of a policy to fight all fires within 50 kilometres of a community, that is something we can consider. I think that there are some real problems with us trying to adopt and implement that kind of policy. As we know, on the hot dry days like we have had for the last week, we could have 100 or more fires start up in a region. We have had that happen. We would physically not be able to live up to our policy if we said that we would fight every one of them.

Inevitably, we have to pick and choose which ones we are going to fight and where we are going to keep crews on standby. I think that it would be a policy that would be impossible for us to maintain, because we have had over 100 fires started in any one evening as a lightning storm goes by. We just do not have enough crews for that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.