Thank you, Madam Chair. That's how they view it in the small communities. They get overwhelmed from information from one department and another department. I think some of their concerns were that the government has all these departments, especially in light of the development that's going to happen and our government's willingness to help the communities, but they always complain about the lack of capacity, the lack of ability to research, so I think if our government was able to prepare some kind of pamphlet, it will help our communities to be ready, to know where to go for the right type of funding. I would just like to say that as my comment and I will continue to pursue it and hopefully it will provide something that the communities want and need and they are at the fingertips when it comes to training and oil and gas opportunities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will leave questions to the appropriate time and try to save some time here. I know the new Minister has taken quite an active role in learning about the department and he has to be commended for that. Going through the draft mains with him, he was very knowledgeable on his department. There is definitely going to be some change at RWED. That's in the cards. It's going to be happening. With change, we have to try to take that as an opportunity to get somewhere to streamline some things. In a department the size of RWED, there can be some

reductions and cost-savings measures that can come as a result of it. The one thing I was hoping that we would get a briefing on is the BDIC, the amalgamation of the Development Corporation and the BCC. I am not sure exactly where that is. The legislation was supposed to have been ready at the end of the 14th Assembly and for whatever reason, it never saw the light of day. I don't know if it's hiding in a closet some place or where it is or why the Governance and Economic Development committee wasn't afforded a look at that legislation or where their department is at with that. I was a bit disappointed with that happening.

The other thing, and Mr. Allen spoke of it and I have seen it happen as well, with diamonds and oil and gas, a lot of things get caught in the shuffle in RWED, especially tourism, fishing, agriculture, forestry. Some things get pushed to the side and I don't know how you give those things a bit more of a profile, but that's something I would like to see this government work more toward is the economic diversification and not try to put all our eggs in one basket. It's almost Easter, so I can say that. The last government seemed to be concentrating on diamonds and oil and gas, and I would like to see us branch out a little bit more and with the division of the department, I think that might afford us some opportunity to do just that. I am happy to see some of the commitments the Minister made to us during committee on the department. Again, I will ask my questions at the appropriate time. Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me general comments.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was really pleased to see in the opening comments by the Minister about the protection of the environment for generations to come as a central priority of the department. When the proposed Mackenzie gas pipeline was talked about in my region, I had some real concerns with regard to the environment and how our land should be protected, our water will be saved and the food that the animals eat that would be sustained for generations to come. One of the comments from one of our elders said that a pipeline is going to come down. We see it already. We have to protect our land. It's good to see the Minister make a comment that his department is taking the process as a central priority for his department in terms of the protection of the environment. I will ask the Minister some questions on the funding and the type of approaches that he is going to use in terms of the protected areas strategy in the Northwest Territories. Things are moving fast and we are doing some work in our protected areas strategy in the Sahtu and the other regions also and the type of support this government is going to give in terms of the protected areas strategy concept. I will ask the Minister some questions later on about that.

The other one is the abandoned mines and industrial sites. In the Sahtu, a lot of work has been done on the uranium issue. Along the Great Bear River, there are a couple of uranium sites used as stockpile. In my community of Tulita, there are two sites of uranium that are a hot issue for people. Right now, the governments are deciding who is responsible for it. As the beat goes on, the uranium site and gravel stockpile is still sitting in our community. Some people are very concerned about it in my community and very emotional because the uranium has done a lot of harm to my people in the Sahtu region. There is a site at the airport that nobody seems to want to take responsibility for. People drive by every day and look at it and are curious to see who is going to make the first move in terms of helping the people in that region.

My comment has to do with the support this government is committed to in promoting excellent trapping in the Sahtu region. As you know, we have a project in the Sahtu region to get our young people and now they have women also in the trapping program that they have. Part of our cultural teaching is sporting as a cultural initiative. Not everyone wants to be pipeline workers or work in industry. Some people want to continue on with their traditional way of life of trapping. So far, I have heard some really good comments from the people who are in that trapping program. We are supporting our young people to go into that type of lifestyle and I think that is a very healthy lifestyle. I would like to commend the Minister in his support to that.

The last one I would like to comment on is the Mackenzie gas pipeline initiative. APG is going down the Mackenzie Valley asking for ownership by different communities, organizations and land claim groups. In the Sahtu, they are saying the Sahtu can own up to 34 percent of the pipeline. In the Sahtu what we are looking at is a business deal, strictly a business deal with ownership. We are not sure of how many communities are going to enter into that ownership deal, however we are working on ways that we need to get together and I see that the government has given dollars in terms of APG in terms of administrative expenses on the pipeline ownership. Our communities are also looking for some kind of support for that. We need to get together and put together a financial package and talk to people and see if this is a good deal. We need to have the resources in our communities to look at the APG and look at the risks of having ownership in this pipeline. Right now, they don't know who to turn to see what kind of resources they can get to support them. I am glad the Minister said there is a possibility of looking at a one-window approach to look at all these issues of a pipeline, but in the Sahtu region pipeline ownership is strictly a business deal and we need to do some analysis in terms of entering into that business deal with APG.

Another aspect of this pipeline is we access benefit agreements that organizations are negotiating in this pipeline deal and how these benefits will come to the people in the communities and the region. Again, we are looking for some leadership in terms of government, along with other governments, to look at some of the commonalities and common needs of people down the Mackenzie Valley in terms of negotiation and support in terms of access and benefits that will flow from the Mackenzie gas pipeline to the people in our communities.

The last one I would like to point out is community infrastructure. It's the capacity building that needs to happen in our communities in terms of the development that's going to happen in the Mackenzie Valley. It's strengthening people in the communities, and I am glad the Minister has talked to the point of involving the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. That's one point that we stress always, the need to start putting an action plan together, because 2006 is coming pretty fast. Right now the Sahtu is looking at putting together an action plan that would look at initiatives that would create opportunities for people and companies, but also look at capacity building in our communities where there is a potential Mackenzie gas pipeline.

Madam Chair, these are my comments, but I would like to stress the protected area strategy and funding for that initiative. I will leave it at that. Thank you.

General comments. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. I would just like to caution Members not to reference individual employees, if you could. Thank you. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am going to take a different tact from the rest of the colleagues so far and ask some questions on the opening statement and refrain from general comment. Mr. Chairman, I have a question on the first page and it has to do with travel expenditures. Earlier this afternoon, I tabled the document that was given to us by the Minister of Finance. I don't 'have a copy of it at the moment, but I think I memorized it. RWED had somewhere in the amount of about $12 million in travel expenditures for the year 2002-03. Sorry, maybe it was $10 million and it was adjusted for travel expenditure for fire suppression and such. There was still about $2.5 million in travel expenditures. Why is it that travel related to fire suppression would be included in that way? Why would it not be under the separate budget for the fire suppression section? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

The Member is correct in that there is $7.5 million in travel expenditures attributed for 2002-03 to presuppression and suppression essentially under the fire activity. It would be quite difficult to go through that travel knowing that it is non-discretionary and seek to reduce that. So the travel reductions were based on discretionary travel and once that $7 million is taken out of there for things like air contracts and aircraft, we end up with $2.677 million in 2002-03. Of that, 25 percent constitutes $669,000, so that was the targeted reduction: $669,000.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't believe the Minister answered my question. I wanted to know why the $7.5 million for fire suppression travel is included in this way, and not under the fire suppression division budget. At the same time, how much is the fire suppression division budget that includes everything else that it does? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

I understand that in 2002-03, aircraft contracts were included in this travel item. Going forward we made the decision not to record it that way, and we think that this makes more sense. So I think we certainly agree with the Member. But at that point in 2002-03 it was included, so we had to back it out for this exercise.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps I will pursue that issue further later when we get to the fire suppression section, but I have another question on the Minister's opening statement and it has to do with an item on page 2. There is mention of a program that would promote consumption of energy and other areas. The government is planning on spending $560,000 and there's a potential for partnering with the federal government. I would just like to know more about this because I've had inquiries from constituents who were quite surprised that the NWT being an area because of it's cold weather there's lots of consumption of energy, yet there seems to be no program that would provide assistance to people to renovate or enhance the features of their houses so that their energy costs would go down. So I would like to know more about what this program will do and if that would do anything similar to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Obviously we do use a lot of energy in the North to heat our homes and for other things, and it is very important and I think we can make major inroads in this area. It is very important for us to make this a priority.

The Member asked about the energy conservation program. That's our program and it provides financial assistance to support projects that reduce our usage of electricity and heat energy and water. We have $300,000 budgeted this year. We also make a contribution to the Arctic Energy Alliance. They deliver energy management

programs on behalf of our department, and also seek to lever as much federal money as possible, because obviously they are able to make and do a lot of good work with our $260,000 by partnering with other federal agencies. We have found and we believe that going forward there will be more and more federal money available in these areas. With Kyoto and with other commitments the federal government is making there's a real need to make this a priority across the country, and these will be our agencies that enable us to take advantage of a lot of this money.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is this program already up and running and implemented? If so, what is it called and where do the individuals have the opportunity to apply for this? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister

Yes, both the energy conservation program and the Arctic Energy Alliance are up and running and doing work. We certainly have contact information for anybody interested in contacting either the Arctic Energy Alliance, or for that program contacting our department through the environmental protection branch of our department and our government.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.