Thank you, Minister Ootes. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member's statement today stated that there were still a lot of questions in my communities regarding the pipeline and I just wanted to know if this government has been working on putting a process in place to ensure that all communities are provided with information regarding the impacts and opportunities. I would like to pose that question to the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

Thank you. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Minister Antoine.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's important that the communication links be developed early to take advantage of all the opportunities. Mr. Speaker, regarding this project, there's a lot of anticipation for business start up and for new businesses to get involved and some to expand. However, we all know the monies and dollars for business development within the territorial government is very restricted and the capital does not go a long ways. I'd like to know if this government is looking at new sources. We've heard that there's new dollars for training, there's new dollars for infrastructure. However, I'd like to know if this government is looking at new sources for business development for capital for northern companies. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Minister Antoine.

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

Mr. Speaker, I hope the strategic plan's going to include some new dollars. Along with communication and capital funding, I think it's important that we look at how this is all going to be handled within the department. Because now we recognize there's only so many regional staff allocated to economic development. It's very limited and we have to consider travel, training, holidays. I would like to ask the Minister if he would be looking at committing additional staff to advance the northern participation on this project. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Minister Antoine. Your final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, communities in my riding and up and down the Mackenzie Valley are being bombarded by visits from the oil companies and exploration companies. They're all coming into the communities and requesting meetings. We really have nobody out there working with them. When the diamond industry moved into this area, a whole new division was created for them. I believe it was under Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development and it was exclusive to the diamond industry and issues in that area. I wonder if something comparable could be done for oil and gas to help out the smaller communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Minister Antoine. Before we go to the next question, I'd like to direct your attention to the presence in the visitors' gallery of the Grades 8 and 9 of Ecole Alain St. Cyr School here in Yellowknife with their teacher, Jean Gravel. Please welcome them.

---Applause

Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow up to my colleague, Mr. Delorey's Member's statement today, I have some questions for the Minister of Public Works and Services. As Mr. Delorey indicated, we supply a committee of this legislature with information about Hay River and asked that Hay River be considered for the location of the new Human Rights Commission office.

Mr. Speaker, I hope the Minister can understand our surprise when we received a letter indicating that Hay River was not being considered because there was no appropriate office space. I've been contacted by several constituents who do indicate that they have office space available. I would like to ask the Minister, was Public Works and Services involved in providing information to a committee of this House with respect to the availability of space for a Human Rights Commission office? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Minister Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes, we were involved. We were asked by the Board of Management to do a review of what housing and office facilities were available within a number of communities - that would be Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Rae, Yellowknife and Inuvik. Public Works and Services phoned the landlords and got information from them on what's available, how long it would take to bring them on stream if they were, in fact, identified as the community that the facilities would be built in and that information was passed back to the Board of Management. We didn't put any recommendations to favour any one community to the Board of Management. We just gave them the information as it came to us from the landlords. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Steen. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I find that very interesting. I'd like to know how the Department of Public Works and Services would have determined who they would contact in these communities and what the criteria was for what they were looking for because certainly the only contact in Hay River that's referred to in the letter indicated that they would be able to meet the requirements of what the Human Rights Commission office was looking for and other landlords in the community indicate that they have never been contacted. So, how would they have determined who they were going to contact and what would they have said as the outline or scope of what they were looking for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Minister Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the information I have is that they received certain criteria that the Board of Management would need in order to address the needs of the commission and we used that in a questionnaire to the landlords and that's what we used to establish the information that we passed on back to the Board of Management. Thank you.