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

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, this is a program that was meant to match a benefit that was given to Nunavut. It is one-time, the communities are only eligible for it once. The intention was that they would use the money to set up a trust fund from which they would take the earnings and reinvest that back into the harvesting industry. There are a number of other existing programs that certainly the harvesters can benefit from, but these are certainly not the magnitude of the Western Harvesters' Support Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe most communities have, over the years, accessed the program, but if there are some who have not then certainly we would be pleased to work with them on putting in their application. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Mr. Speaker, certainly we would be interested in looking at new programs. If the Member has any suggestions, or anyone else does, I would be very interested in doing that. The harvesting and traditional economy are important to many of our people, and we would be very appreciative of any suggestions on how we can improve the programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the proposal was considered by the department.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister wants me to use up more of my questions. Can the Minister advise why that proposal was rejected?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe there were two main reasons why the proposal was not accepted. One of them was the time frame they put forward to do the job. There was a suggestion that they were going to complete the highway, rather than what we are suggesting here. Even with the accelerated plan we have proposed, we thought that the very minimum we could do this in would be three years. The plan that was proposed to us said two years. We did not think we could do that. It could not be managed in two years. There would be a lot of outside equipment required in order to advance it to two years rather than three. A lot of the benefits of the project would have gone south rather than staying in the Territories.

The second main concern was the financing aspect of it. It was suggested that over a ten-year period we could finance this road through a financial scheme that was proposed whereby the Legislative Assembly would approve a financial plan and we would pay off the expenses of this project over a ten-year period. I believe the department put some thought into that, and that we would basically be in the same situation if we simply went out and borrowed the money ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does that mean that the department could go out and borrow the money and advance the construction on that highway without having the road toll?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is something that would have to be addressed more towards the Minister of Finance; but from the department's perspective and from the advice we were given, if it was a matter of borrowing, the government could probably get better rates themselves rather than having it financed through a third party. That did come into play.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.