Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance also stated that on May 21st he met with the Finance Minister, Mr. Manley, and that the Minister is supportive and understanding of our fiscal situation. Again we state that we are extremely encouraged about his understanding and we look forward to a positive fiscal situation. What is different about the understanding that Mr. Manley has and any understanding that we have had with the federal government before that gives us more certainty that we are going to have a positive result or situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, when the three Premiers from the territories met with the...

Oh, we are going to have to pause for a minute for, I think it is...There we go. The honourable Minister of Finance, Minister Handley.

Mr. Speaker, when the three Premiers from the territories met with their counterparts from across Canada and with the Prime Minister there was an agreement for additional money to be our health care costs. As well, and very importantly, the Prime Minister acknowledged his recognition that our current funding arrangement is not adequate for the territories. Direction was given that the adequacy of the formula should be looked at. Mr. Manley as Finance Minister has assumed the main responsibility for doing this. When I met with him on May 12th I found that he had been well briefed, was very aware of our situation and was certainly taking this task of looking at the adequacy of the formula very seriously. The officials who were with him, as well, were very positive in terms of working with our officials to develop a new financing formula that would better reflect our needs. What will be in that formula that has yet to be negotiated? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister also said that we are encouraging the understanding that Mr. Manley has and that we look forward to renegotiated formula financing agreements with the government. Could the Minister just indicate or state if we have a date for when our new renegotiated formula financing agreement will come into affect or what stage we are at with those negotiations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I hope that we are able to conclude negotiations for a new financing formula within the life of our government. The new formula will come into affect on April 1, 2004. In my meeting with Minister Manley I suggested to him that we would like to aim toward having the main elements of the formula concluded by sometime in September. I do not know if we can achieve that with this negotiating process, but we are aiming to have it done this fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Yesterday Mr. Speaker, in response to Mrs. Groenewegen, the Minister enumerated a number of reasons for the study that resulted in a recommendation that a new recreation and sport board be established. Can the Minister outline how another layer of administration resolves any of the concerns that he mentioned yesterday?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I outlined yesterday, the purpose for this whole review of Sport North's board and whether or not we should have the creation of a new territorial board was something born at least two years ago. At that time, as I said, Sport North was given the opportunity by the previous Minister to change the structure of their board to allow a better representation for smaller communities because of the concerns expressed by the smaller communities that there was not representation at that level and they felt that they were not taking part in decision-making or having an opportunity to take part in the sports activities at a territorial or national level. It's the same with the larger centres.

Sport North did not respond. So the Minster at the time went back to the Sport North partners and asked them to consider other ways of addressing this particular issue of no representation. What was born out of that was the creation of a proposed territorial sports board. There was a number of consultation meetings that took place as a result of this, including two meetings where all Sport North partners and territorial sports organizations were present, as well as recreation leaders. They all took part in the recommendation and formation of this board. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the history and what has transpired over the last couple of years in terms of meetings and so on, but I am still having trouble understanding how adding another layer of administration is going to deal with the underlying concern, which was that not enough money was getting to where the rubber meets the road. That doesn't tell me how it is that we can add another layer of administration, pay for more meetings, more people to move around to attend meetings and still get more money down to where it really counts to help the athletes and the people who want to enjoy recreation. How does that happen with this new board?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the cost of administration and the increasing cost of administration was one of the major concerns discussed at these particular meetings. What was suggested by the partners and the territorial sports organizations was that there already is a Sport North board. We are not creating another board on top of the Sport North board. We are going to replace the Sport North board with the territorial sports board. It would also be taken and seen as replacing some of the need for recreational sports boards or recreational organization boards and combining them all into one. That was the recommendation of the groups. It is not the recommendation of the department, it was recommended by the partners.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's interesting because nowhere in this report does it say we are replacing the Sport North board. In fact, when you look at the diagram, Sport North is clearly shown in there along with the Aboriginal Sports Circle, the Beaufort-Delta/Sahtu Recreation Association, the Mackenzie Recreation Association, the NWT Recreation and Parks Association. Mr. Speaker, it's clear from this paper that we are adding a layer and not taking away. How can we get rid of volunteer boards and boards that represent sport organizations? They would have to agree to that, but I haven't heard any of that.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the particular makeup of the board was proposed by the territorial sports organizations and the groups themselves, including Sport North. Sport North is part of the proposed new board. What level they would be representing as far as the rest of the group, I have no idea at this time because there was no indication from Sport North whether they will still be representing all 27 groups or not. As far as I know, the makeup was decided by the territorial sports organizations and the recreation groups. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Speaker, there are an awful lot of questions. We don't know who the three recreation delegates are who would be selected to this board or the three sports delegates. The paper says the first order of accountability is to the Minister. I find that very problematic. I think there are many issues that still need to be addressed. Will the Minister commit to embarking on a further round of consultation, in particular with Members of this Assembly to discuss how this board will work or how this board would work and how it's envisioned before proposing to move forward with it?

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