Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did send a letter to the proponent and assured him that our commitment will be fulfilled to that obligation and I can assure the Member that I did send out a letter under my signature indicating that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Antoine. It's in regard to my line of questioning towards the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I stated earlier, between the two phases of construction, we're looking at the preconstruction phase where you're looking at some 810 jobs from access road construction to camps and catering. With construction of the pipeline we're looking at almost 2,700 jobs. Together, that's 3,500 jobs that will be created in the Mackenzie Valley.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, I feel that we have to inject more dollars into the education and training field knowing that we've had programs in the past, called maximizing northern employment, where we expended some $15 million. We've had agreements in place with the diamond companies by way of social and economic benefit agreements. I'd like to ask the Minister, are we looking at a similar arrangement so we can take advantage of these 3,500 jobs that are going to be generated by the construction of the pipeline?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of RWED, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have had tons of strategies and initiatives. We've established special funding arrangements for the secondary diamond industry, looking at the polishing plants and training dollars that were put through the Education department. I'd like to ask the Minister specifically, will there also be a component of this strategy that encompasses dollars strictly directed at training to ensure we take advantage of these job opportunities?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of RWED, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, a lot of this preparation activity has happened. It happened last winter. The activities have taken place. There's a lot of work happening in the Sahtu and Gwich'in regions this winter. It's already on our doorstep. I'd like to ask the Minister when will these dollars be going into our communities so we can take advantage of the opportunities that are there right now and not wait a couple years to see this strategy come to light?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of RWED, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the Education Act, the Executive Council is able to approve changes to the mandate of Education, Culture and Employment. I'd like to ask the Minister, who is part of the Executive Council, will you consider looking at immediately implementing the change to the Education Act to allow for dollars to flow to the communities strictly structured for the construction of the pipeline?

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

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we put the program in place there was some form of criteria that we had to establish in order to arrive at priorities for each community. One of the obvious things that had to be taken into consideration, Mr. Speaker, was the availability of equipment to actually apply the chip seal; also, the availability of crush material. Therefore, we worked out a plan that would work in conjunction with the Department of Transportation to see when their equipment would be used in relation to a community. We would hopefully take advantage of that and have them apply chip seal in those communities that were in that region. That's how we hoped to take advantage of or make best use. One million dollars is all we have for the project per year. Hopefully some communities, in particular those that are on the highway system, would be seen as having chip seal in place in the next few years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.