Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we are aware of some of the problems and inequities that happened with the federal program. We are trying to come up with one here that is based on very clear criteria, that is administered through the local housing associations so everybody knows more about what it is we are doing. This is one that will be administered more at the local level as opposed to the federal one, which is straight out of Ottawa. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the areas I addressed in my Member's statement was middle-income earners. I would like to receive from the Minister what his definition or range of income would be that would classify a middle-income earner? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the definition of middle-income earners...you know, we could have a Northwest Territories average, we could have it by community and so on, but generally speaking, we are talking about people who are making somewhere in the $50,000 to $60,000 range in the Northwest Territories and up. We could broaden that. We could narrow it. There is no tight definition of who is legally a middle-income earner. In some communities, it might be lower than that. In some places, it might be higher than that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when you take it on a household income, I would suggest that he was probably fairly close. Eighty-thousand dollars would probably be the middle range for a family income. I was wondering, because these middle-income earners are a household of $72,000 to $80,000 and have the same costs as anybody else. One incident was brought to my attention where middle-income earners right now just had to give up their house in Hay River because they cannot keep pace with the increasing costs. I was wondering, what is being done for these people who are just outside of the range the Minister was identifying? What is being done for these people to help them out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the fuel rebate may help people in a small way. We are not talking about a lot of money here. In order to help these people in their overall cost of living in the North, we have to look at other measures. As I have mentioned, we are looking at things like the tax credit we have talked about. We are looking at moving to a tax on income system and so on. Those are the things that will make a difference in the North, if we can design our northern income tax system here. We often get lumped in with other high income jurisdictions like Alberta.

I saw recently an article that said Alberta and the Northwest Territories have the highest incomes in Canada. In fact, it said the Northwest Territories had the highest income in Canada. To somebody on the outside that does not know us, they think that we are all wealthy in here. We know that is not the case. There are some people doing very well and a lot of people are not doing very well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another area I addressed in my Member's statement that I wanted to get some clarification from the Minster is the fishermen in Hay River. I understand they are going to be getting the fuel rebate. What I would like the Minister to clarify is where that money is coming from. Is that money in fact coming from the access money that is in the freight subsidy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, like many of our programs, whether it is the fur pricing program or the commercial fishers freight subsidy or even our forest firefighting program, we have in our budget holding figures. In the case of the fishermen, I believe we have a figure of $395,000. We pay fishermen from that on a per pound basis. I believe that it is 15 cents per pound as a subsidy to get their fish off the lake. In some years, we use that $395,000 and other years we do not. In those cases that we do not use it, it lapses and goes back to the government. This year, we have not used it all. So rather then lapsing that money, I am taking part of that money and putting it back to the fishermen as a fuel subsidy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe Mr. Nitah.

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

Mr. Speaker, I had handed out the eligibility criteria, so I will not go through that whole list. Generally, people have to be 19 years old. They have to have paid for their own fuel. They have to be, generally speaking, in their own house or a private house. They cannot be getting subsidized recently and so on. The criteria is laid out here which ones qualify.

It is not as if nobody qualifies. If I look at some very preliminary information we have, and I look at Lutselk'e for example, in our information, there are 60 privately owned homes, 49 of which qualify. I have it for all of the communities. A fairly high percentage, Mr. Speaker, of people in private homes in the communities qualify. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Nitah, I am not sure the Minister would be able to know that question, but I will allow the Minister to answer if he chooses. The honourable Minister for Finance, Mr. Handley. What is the cost of pop in Hay River?

-- Laughter

Mr. Speaker I am told that a can of pop in Hay River sells for about $1.00. I have not bought any myself there recently. I hope that people drink juice instead.