Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt we will require industry buy-in in this particular program. We are quite prepared to make some approaches to industry to see if we can have industry increase their particular support. I know that they have contributed as well to date, but I think it is a very important recommendation the honourable Member is making, that we approach the various industries to see if support can be increased. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Ootes. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, with that kind of initiative and the support that I am sure the private sector will be able to put behind this, would the Minister make an appeal to the Minister for HRDC reflecting the unique and extreme circumstances we have here in the Northwest Territories, in northern Canada, for federal support to continue our participation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we certainly will be contacting the Honourable Jane Stewart in this regard. We feel that this is an extremely interesting project here in the Northwest Territories that contributes substantially to our needs in today's developments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden. No supplementary. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Mr. Speaker, the design and structure of the highway toll is more appropriately the responsibility of the Minister of Transportation. I do not have the answer on what consultation has taken place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. I just caution the Member to make sure they observe the rule about information that is on bills that we have not dealt with yet. However, you are okay on that one. If you have a supplementary question, you may ask it, but it is pretty close, Mr. Lafferty. That is why I am mentioning it. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Chair was aware of that. It is just that I was exercising a bit of caution here, just reminding the Members. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as I said before, these are questions that are more appropriate for the Minister of Transportation. However, I can assure the Member that as the toll is being designed and put in place and consultation happens, there will be consultation with communities, even the ones that are not on the road but are interested in this issue.

Certainly a highway toll will free up money that can be used to ensure that we have winter roads and so on. I do not think this will be an issue. We will just be beginning the consultation phase following this session. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

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

Mr. Speaker, certainly as Finance Minister, I will work with all the Ministers in ensuring that we have good business plans, good budgets and good initiatives and so on. However, once the budgets are determined and are within the mandate of individual Ministers, they are the ones who will take the lead on that.

With regard to the benefits to all people in the North, I think improved highway structures have benefits for everyone. If we take the North Slave communities, for example, then whether those communities are on roads or not, they will benefit. The off-road communities will benefit because the highway toll structure will free up dollars that can be used to build winter roads, as I mentioned before.

Many people who have access to communities by winter road use the all-weather highway during the winter when they drive out of their communities. I think there will be benefits in terms of travelling more reliably on better roads eventually.

I think this is a benefit to everybody and in the long run everyone will see that they are benefiting, whether they are on a highway or not. Thank you.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, that is a difficult one to analyze. It depends on how we define industry, but certainly in terms of homeowners, if I can call them that as being the private sector, will pay roughly, we estimate, $2.7 million total across the Territories in increased costs as a result of the toll.

The other balances are picked up largely by big industry, but by other industry and businesses as well. That would have to be broken out very carefully, I suppose, to try to break it into industry versus the retail sector and so on. Thank you.

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