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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I can understand where the Member's original question came from now, where he referred to a phone call. As the Minister, I did receive a phone call from a contractor in Inuvik asking us if the department was competing with them in the crushing business. I told him that as far as I am concerned, as far as I know, the department is not interested in competing with him. That was the content of the phone call.

As far as what relation that phone call had on whether he got the contract or not, that contract had nothing to do with us, the Department of Transportation. That was strictly a contract between the contractor and the town, as far as I know. It related to whether or not he or someone else could have access to our quarry site.

It is my understanding that the town tendered that particular contract with reference to our quarry site. We did not have any input into whether or not the town had contacted us before they put it in the quarry site.

We therefore -- the only involvement we got in at that point was whether or not there is access to that particular quarry site. Therefore, we went and reviewed whether or not we could allow someone, who is a contractor for the town, access to that particular quarry site for crushing. That is where we responded to the town with a letter saying we denied him access to the pit because we have not established whether there is enough material in that site to serve the needs, the long-term needs of the department.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister is on the right wavelength regarding my questioning. Mr. Speaker, the individual who called the Minister at home also crushed gravel in the same pit three years earlier. So what makes it different in this case where he had the ability to crush gravel in this pit that we are talking about and three years after the fact when the town of Inuvik requested to be able to crush gravel in the same source, was rejected? Why was the Town of Inuvik rejected from accessing that pit when in other years the other contractors had access to that pit?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, the only access the town had previous to that, or any contractor had previous to that particular pit other than the Department of Transportation, was when we were crushing. The town indicated their need for material at the same time we were crushing. They indicated they would use the same contractor so we allowed it to happen at that time.

This particular instance is totally different. We were not approached by anyone to use this particular pit. The only time we became aware that people were identifying a need to use our pit was because the town tendered a contract identifying our pit as a source. Therefore, we became involved at that time and we denied anybody use to the pit. We did not allow anybody use of the pit because we had not completed a survey as to our future needs in that particular pit. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the superintendent of the Inuvik transportation division, Gurdev Jagpal, on August 15th requested that they crush an additional 10,000 cubic metres from that pit for the Department of Transportation.

So on one hand, the public is requesting crushing and the department is requesting crushing 10,000 cubic metres of gravel from the superintendent of Transportation in Inuvik. That was part and parcel of the contract that was let, that that was also going to be crushed in this contract.

Again, can the Minister clarify his statement? He stated the only way they will allow crushing to take place is if it was in the interest of the Department of Transportation and the additional contractor, which was the Town of Inuvik. I would like to ask the Minister to clarify that point. The department requested 10,000 cubic metres of gravel.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of the department requesting crushing of 10,000 cubic metres of material so I am going to have to take that portion of the question as notice.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. That part of the question has been taken as notice. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I want to go back to the questions regarding the arena. I want to direct my questions to the Minister of Finance this time.

Under the new government-wide capital planning process, I want to know what the status is of honouring commitments of projects that were already in the capital plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, in the capital plan, we have projects that have started and are partly underway. It might be in the planning stage. It may have been the first year of a multi-year investment and so on. We have other projects that are in the capital plan, but there has not been any work done on those ones.

In the case of the ones where we have done work, then there is certainly a strong obligation on our part to continue them unless we have compelling reasons to stop it. In the case where we have not begun work in a project, that is, for example, in the fifth year of the capital plan, then those of course would have to be reconsidered. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand what the Minister is saying, that any contracts that have not been started or have not been signed, any projects that are not on the verge of starting will be reconsidered and may no longer be in the plan. I would like to ask more specifically in terms of the Hay River Reserve arena -- which is scheduled, I believe, for 2004 -- according to the Minister of MACA, arenas do not rate very high in terms of priority. What will become of this project?

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

Mr. Speaker, each year our capital is voted, year by year, so something that is in the plan in 2004, for example, would need to be considered at that time. It would be up to the Legislative Assembly in 2004 to make that decision on whether or not they are going to move ahead with it. If there is any money that is in the plan for 2003, it would be looked at at that time. We only vote our capital year by year, except in multi-year projects where, of course, the commitment is made for multiple years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Then I will ask the Minister if he could tell me if it would be safe to say that from now on, any communities that are expecting arenas should not be holding their breath because it does not rank high as a priority at this time and will not be considered.

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

Mr. Speaker, if a project is ranked high enough, then it gets into our capital plan. That is a five-year planning horizon, then it certainly has some ranking, for sure. Each year we have to go through all of our capital projects and decide which ones we are going to be able to afford to fund for that particular year.

Just the fact that it is in the five-year capital plan does not mean that a community should say, "That is firm, we know absolutely, regardless of what may happen financially around the world or in the Northwest Territories, that particular project is going to happen." It really does not get approved until it is approved by this House each year. Thank you.

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

Well, I really question then, Mr. Speaker, are we dealing with five-year capital plans anymore or are we dealing with an annual plan? How do communities plan for the long term? We do not seem to know what will fit the criteria at this point.

I have asked a number of questions to two Ministers, stood up three times now and I still cannot get an answer on the status of arenas. I ask him, what does he say to the communities in terms of long-term planning?