Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we'll look at all of the options, but I'm not sure about paint balls.

---Laughter

I'll talk to my colleague, the Minister of RWED, to see whether or not that's something that would be worth trying.

Mr. Speaker, I'm prepared to look at whatever alternatives we can. There are a lot of buffalo that do stand around the highways to get away from insects bothering them. I don't know that widening the lines, putting reflectors up, will help. The one thing, Mr. Speaker, is we want to make sure that we don't have so many signs up all along the highway that people begin to ignore them. If that happens then the signs become useless. It may also be, Mr. Speaker, that one of the options we haven't looked at would be slower speed limits in the areas where there are a lot of buffalo. But, again, I don't know if that will make a lot of difference with some drivers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Minister Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of options that we could look at. I mention lowering the speed limits because I have noticed personally that some people don't slow down much when they come up on a herd of buffalo that are standing in a ditch or even on the side of the road. Those animals can move fast. They can decide to cross the road in the other direction, and maybe we need to do more education with the traveling public to say when you see buffalo, no one can predict what direction they're going to go, and maybe we should slow down a lot more than some people do. I know from experience that they can move very quickly. I don't think slowing down the speed limit on the whole road would necessarily resolve the problem, but I think just taking more caution would. So education will definitely be part of the response that we would want to make, and I think it's something that we will look at seriously, but not try to frustrate people. I will work with the Minister of RWED. If there is something we can do before we start getting more darkness in the fall, then we'll see if we can do that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I'll get a quick briefing note from the department within the next few days. But in terms of looking at any detail to any alternatives, I need to talk with the Minister of RWED and others and look at what the options might be to resolve this in the long term. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. The time for question period has expired. The chair recognizes the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm seeking unanimous consent to go back to item 6.

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 6, oral questions. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Transportation. As you all know, municipalities for years have always maintained the airports, have had the CARS contract. But in the last couple of years contracts have been put out to a tendering system where now the municipalities are finding themselves in financial difficulty, carrying a debt on their books because of the impact of that decision. So I'd like to ask the Minister of Transportation is there any way that the municipalities, along with the Department of Transportation, can work out some arrangement to deal with these deficit situations we find in our municipalities? In some cases it's almost $60,000 of unforeseen debt that has come because of this privatization. I'd like to ask the Minister, have you heard of this problem and are you willing to sit down with municipalities to resolve this concern?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Minister Handley.

Mr. Speaker, while it may be a problem in some communities, I have not gotten any information that would suggest it's a problem across the North. But I certainly would be interested in discussing any specific issues where we have municipalities that are running deficits because of the need to maintain the airport. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that through the audits of these different municipalities, it has come to the attention of the auditors that there have been these unforeseen impacts on communities which are now showing up as debt on the books of the municipalities. I would like to ask the Minister exactly if there is any way the communities can be compensated for this impact because of the decision to privatize those contracts and leave the hamlets with the outstanding debt.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, if the communities entered into a legal agreement to take over the airports and they now run deficits, then it's difficult to compensate them. But I can certainly look at any situations that have resulted from a bad deal somehow, from the community's perspective. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to also ask the Minister of Finance if he can work with his colleague, the Minister of MACA, to see how we can try to avoid such unforeseen problems in the future, so that whenever we have contract arrangements with the municipalities, that they aren't saddled with unforeseen debt because of a political decision made by this government.

Thank you. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.