Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this morning, I spoke in conference with Premier Okalik and Premier Fentie of the Yukon and we have sent a letter to the Prime Minister indicating our desire to bring resolution to the outstanding issue of funding with regard to health in the three northern territories and moving on to find some way to throw our support behind the accord if it can be brought to some satisfactory resolution. It has been almost a week now since we've indicated our dissatisfaction with the accord and particularly with the funds that were allocated to the territories. Since then, our three northern Members of Parliament and very senior political staff in the Prime Minister's office, including the Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb, have been assigned to try to find some possible remedy in the short term and long term. Minister Anne McLellan has indicated that she is prepared to come north to meet with our Ministers. We have indicated that we welcome her visit and that Ministers will be prepared to meet with her and that first we need to bring this matter between the Prime Minister and ourselves as three Premiers to some acceptable conclusion in the next week or so before such a meeting or visit should happen. We have sent a letter to the Prime Minister restating that we are anxious to resolve this issue; it has been a week. We'd like to have it resolved within a week, and Minister Anne McLellan's indication that she wants to visit and meet with our health Ministers is welcome, but it should happen after we have resolved this outstanding issue with the Prime Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure whether or not I can put an optimistic or pessimistic interpretation into the need for this letter. Could the Premier advise us more clearly about where we are in terms of why this letter was necessary? I was told we are in the stage of trying to prove to the federal counterparts or the Prime Minister that we need a separate deal. Or is this letter concluding or reaching to the end, having convinced them of that? Are we at the front end of this or at the end?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following the meeting with the Prime Minister and the Premiers, the Prime Minister indicated, in response to a question in House of Commons, that he was aware that per capita funding is simply not acceptable or workable. It does not quite do the job in relation to the three territories. Therefore, we're looking at a different arrangement, in that no meetings would be arranged in the future. We understood that to mean that he's accepted that, per capita, as he proposed in the federal accord, was simply not acceptable and that he was not prepared to come up with a different arrangement. It has been suggested by the Premiers and by the Romanow Commission that the territories need more than per capita, and what we have proposed is a special fund set aside, above and beyond the money that was allocated and to be allocated on a per capita basis; that we would set up, through a special allocation from the federal government, a health fund that would see approximately $20 million to $25 million base funding per year on top of the per capita that we would get, which you know is about roughly $4 million to $5 million for the Northwest Territories. It is the letter's way to indicate to the Prime Minister, that we are waiting to hear some suggestions on how this issue is going to be resolved and we appreciate his indication that he is prepared to meet with us to resolve it and that it is not a matter that can be delegated to Anne McLellan or the Minister of Finance, John Manley. It is a matter to be dealt with by the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the three northern territories. We want to indicate that we are looking for a resolution to it on a timely basis that can make us all look like we are looking out for one of the most fundamental needs of all Canadians, that is a good health care system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. I just want to remind members, I suppose, that the Speaker does have a full list of Members seeking to ask questions. If the question is too long, and the answer is too long, it does take time into the question period. So, if we could just limit the length of time of response, it would be greatly appreciated by other members. Supplementary question, your final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I take your advice. It is still not clear to me. We are aware of the territorial position, we know about what the Prime Minister said, and we know that the meetings have been ongoing. I would like to know, have we passed the stage of convincing them, and are we working out the details of the separate funding or are we not there yet? Could the Premier confirm that? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our staff has been sitting in Ottawa all this week, awaiting word from the staff of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb, and the staff from the Prime Minister's Office. I believe I have been asked by the Prime Minister to come up with some remedy, some short-term solution and to start work with us on a long-term solution and how to address the difficulty we face when dealing with our formula financing arrangement, in particular the per capita funding with which the federal government disburses most funds that are made available to jurisdictions across this country. We have achieved one thing. That is, the Prime Minister has acknowledged that per capita funding is not acceptable to be applied in the case of the territories. As of last Thursday, there was word from the Member of Parliament, the Honourable Ethel Blondin-Andrew who has been working with the Member of Parliament for Nunavut, and the Member of Parliament from the Yukon, that they would be receiving word perhaps Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. As of today, all we know is that these federal officials are asking for more time, trying to come up with some solutions. In the meantime, we've indicated our willingness to meet with the Prime Minister. We have asked the Minister of Health, Anne McLellan, to come north but to schedule it for a date after the Prime Minister and ourselves, as Premiers of the three territories, have come to a resolution regarding this issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Your final supplementary, Ms. Lee, I erred in allocating you a short supplementary.

That's okay, I'll give up.

That's okay, you don't have to ask it. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we recognise the need to be concerned for our seniors in the territory and we have, over the past three years, addressed a number of issues for the seniors. We met with some of the constituents of Mr. Krutko a couple of weeks ago, and it was a very fruitful meeting. Some issues were brought to the table that are of concern to the seniors. One, of course, has been the assessment based on previous year's taxes. Mr. Speaker, we have our work on that and we are moving forward to changing the system, Mr. Speaker. There were some concerns identified, however I think we can overcome those concerns. So we should be moving forward on that particular aspect of the program fairly soon, Mr. Speaker. The concern, of course, was perhaps the previous year income was lower than its current year. So there would be one or two individuals involved and that is the hurdle that we are trying to ensure that we can address to the benefit of all seniors, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a senior, you get one year older and you are assessed for one year previous. We should cherish the time they have with us. So I would like to ask the Minister again, have you looked at the possibility of changing the program to let seniors use this current year's information to do the assessment process?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I personally don't disagree with the assessment being on the previous month or previous two months. As I mentioned, we are just completing the work on that. We should be in a position to move forward on this before a very short period of time. Once it is, it will be instituted. We wanted to make sure that someone who had a lower income last year wouldn't be penalized if we took the previous months, if that month was high income. So we had to take care of that particular detail, Mr. Speaker. That is what we were working out right at the moment, so it should work to the benefit of those seniors.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary question, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a large number of my seniors in my community who maintain their home aren't eligible for this program because the way it was assessed from last year. I would like to ask the Minister will he consider retroactively implementing this program for those seniors who may not have been able to qualify using the last year's income results knowing they may qualify this year? Would you make the program retroactive from September 1, 2002?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we will look at that. It was a question that arose and we don't know the implications of that at this particular time. I don't have that at my fingertips, but we will certainly look at that possibility. Thank you.

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