Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, probably the major cost factor here is that there is a 60 mile haul involved for the majority of the material.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Krutko.

The Minister stated that this, in regard to a special warrant, was an emergency but it seems like it is coming in different phases. Could the community have lived with just phase 1 of this project which has been completed where they brought their road up to a certain standard? A lot of this work, could it not have been done through the business planning process, put it into the business plans and conclude it next year.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think we supplied the information yesterday that showed that the winter haul would have to take place by April 1st. Everything would have to be in place, if not already completed.

The plan was to tender the contracts in December for the winter haul. The winter haul would either take place in March or in April. Because the business planning process and the budget process would only have allowed approval by April 1st, there is no way that the municipality would have even had the opportunity to tender contracts with money they did not have.

It would have been a really touch and go issue whether or not they had the time available in April to do a haul of that size. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hear what the Minister is saying, but I would just like to state, to be fair to everyone else if we use the capital planning process for accessing capital dollars that we should allow for phase 2 and 3 to be concluded through the business planning process which will allow the community of Tuktoyaktuk to finish off this road in 2003-2004.

Is that a possibility of having these resources used through the capital planning process? Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we indicated yesterday that we already contributed to the municipalities $900,000 of this funding as a contribution agreement which allowed them to either tender the whole gravel haul at once or to break it down into sections.

Nevertheless, the plan was that no later than December they would call for public tenders on the contracts. So, there is no option to actually put this into the business plans and into the budgets for next April because it would not allow them to have the ability to tender and haul before the road goes out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do not think my question is being answered. Why is it that phase 2 and the conclusion of this project cannot be completed through the business planning process? You already stated that they have resurfaced that particular road or basically put the materials down to protect it against the so-called emergency because of the erosion down to the matting, so that is taken care of.

I would like to ask the Minister, will the Department of Finance consider looking at implementing those dollars remaining in this budget item to be expended through the capital planning process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, to do this through the capital planning process would mean having to delay any work until April 1st. There are a couple of problems. One is if we do not put the topping on the road then we may lose the benefit and the efficiency of what we have done already on that road. In fact, we may see it start to deteriorate in the same way again.

Second is that if we have to wait until April to have approval of the money then it is likely that we are not going to be able to do the gravel haul that is necessary. That would mean the Department of Transportation would be without gravel for its needs at the airport.

So Mr. Chairman, the Department of Finance has looked at this and determined that the road had to be repaired, there was an emergency and that it was in the best interest of all of us and the public and the way to resolve the emergency was by doing it all this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, I agree that this might be an emergency, but my view is that we have a process in place to ensure communities have fair opportunity to access capital dollars in this government. As we all know, the deficit situation of this government is out there. I do not see any other communities being able to access a similar program, knowing that we have just as bad roads in most of our communities, and also that we have seen the effects of development in our communities, but yet, this government for some reason shortcuts the capital planning process when it comes to Ministers' ridings.

I would like to ask the Minister of Finance exactly why is it that a major expenditure, the $1.3 million, has been put in place, knowingly that we requested from the small communities to consider a program to improve our road infrastructure in our communities. You clearly stated through a letter to the Minister, the chairman of the government's committee, that you were going to have that program available to the Members by the end of September. We have not seen it, but yet you are making major expenditures for the benefit of improving infrastructure in one community.

Again, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance exactly why is it that there is a process in place to look at all infrastructure in the Northwest Territories to ensure that we have the resources to take it on, because we can all find reasons to improve our infrastructure in our communities. In some cases, the roads are just as bad elsewhere.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, all communities have equal access to money in the case of emergencies. As we said earlier, emergencies come in many different forms, but as the Member says, he agrees that this was an emergency, so we will deal with it as an emergency and provide whatever is essential to overcome that difficulty, but all communities with emergencies can have the same access to supplementary or special warrant funding. If there are situations out there, then I hope Members bring it to the attention of myself or the appropriate Minister.

In terms of the infrastructure program for community roads, that is under consideration right now. Certainly we want to look at how we can, through the capital planning process, provide the best capital plan and delivery of programs to each community. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expense, regional operations, special warrants, $1,467,000. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I like what I am hearing from the Minister. It seems like we have another initiative out there. We are looking at which roads need prioritizing, and through the planning process, so I would like to ask the Minister, would it not be more appropriate to complete that study to see exactly where the needs were before you went out with this major expenditure by way of supplementary?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, this is an emergency. It had to be dealt with in a very tight time frame, so we dealt with it as an emergency. In the meantime, other plans on how we deliver our programs are under review. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to move a motion.

You have a motion, Mr. Krutko?