Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, by the Minister's answers it appears he's well aware of the importance of the issue and the beneficial aspects of getting it into law. The only thing that's getting in the way of this law becoming law is getting translation done because all other aspects of the work have been done. May I ask the Minister for a commitment that he will keep working on it to make sure that bill is introduced in the June session? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The honourable Minister of MACA, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have no problem making that commitment because we've been given some assurance by Justice that they have the ability to handle it by June. So I will make sure that I will work with my colleagues to make sure this is ready for introduction in June.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier in my Member's statement this afternoon on support for northern business, I said, I believe and I think most Members of this House believe, it is important to support northern business. Right now, we really only have our gut feelings to go by. So we have programs like the Business Incentive Policy and we have the Development Corporation and BCC, and we have loan guarantees. They are all funded because we think it is important to support northern business. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for both the Minister of Finance and the Minister of RWED. I'll start with the Minister of Finance. Has the Minister discussed with his staff developing a method to assess the net economic impact of government taxes and other economic measures like the BIP that some would call, perhaps, a macro economic tool. Has the Minister discussed developing that kind of tool?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have discussed that with my staff. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Simple direct answers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister advise the House what the result of that conversation was please?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the results were very positive. Mr. Speaker, in all seriousness, we have discussed this for a number of years. In fact, very early in the life of this government the Member raised with me the notion of doing macroeconomic models for the Northwest Territories. Given our limited fiscal ability, given the limited ability for taxation and royalties and so on, it has to be somewhat limited. So, Mr. Speaker, we are working on a number of fronts on that. Trying to assess, for example, the benefits of BIP or even the benefits of a northern manufacturing policy and so on are pieces of it. Mr. Speaker, it is a very complex task and I don't have a document that says here's a macroeconomic model and its implications for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government puts a lot of money into economic programs and the Minister is always looking for new revenues. So taxes, tax rates, tax changes and new taxes are always under consideration. Has the Minister considered approaching the Minister of RWED and combining staff from Finance and Economic Development to see if they can't develop such a tool that would help us assess the value of our programs?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, not necessarily for the specific purpose the Member refers to, although we could have a good discussion between the economics people in RWED and our people, especially in the bureau of statistics. I know they work very closely on this kind of modeling and I would urge them to continue to work along those lines. I take the Member's suggestions very seriously. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister's response that he sees the importance of this. Does the Minister hold any hope that he will be able to develop a tool that might be useful before the end of this government?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister for Finance, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as we look at the organization structure of our government, one of the things that we want to do is to ensure that we have maximum efficiency. Will we have a tool that is completed before the end of this government? I don't think we'll have a completed one. I think this is an ongoing exercise that changes as we change our fiscal relationships among ourselves, the federal government and aboriginal self-governments. As we're negotiating devolution, resource revenue sharing and all of those pieces keep changing any kind of model that we would be looking at. Will we have a completed model? Not likely, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister Responsible for FMB, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, certainly I will cooperate with all the Members and especially the special committee on small communities to try to achieve what Mr. Nitah is referring to. Mr. Speaker, I say that although knowing that we have given an interim response to the special committee's interim report and I understand that that committee will be reporting back in June. I've offered to meet with the committee several times and I'll do that. I'd like to work cooperatively with the Members of that committee to figure out ways we can achieve what Mr. Nitah is referring to, where we help people to become much more self-sufficient. I think our government has to work well with the committees of this Legislative Assembly on those kinds of exercises. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.