Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

For clarification, I will be following up with this with your staff officials to keep a close eye on it. With some level of comfort, I will let the people of Deline know what the department is doing. That's all I have to say, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Community local access roads, grants and contributions, total contributions, $537,000.

Road licensing and safety, operations expense, total operations expense, $3.236 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

I just want to keep in line with my colleague over here and I would like a breakdown on the other expenses, please.

Thank you. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Mr. Neudorf. Road licensing and safety, total operations expense, $3.236 million. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get a breakdown of other expenses, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. We just had that read out. Mr. Yakeleya had requested that in your absence...I shouldn't say absence. Mr. Yakeleya requested that and it's already been read for the record. Thank you. Road licensing and safety, total operations expense, $3.236 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is the area where I wanted to bring my questions up. It regards progress on implementing the new standards for drinking and driving. There are a number of different areas that this legislation dealt with from my recollection, Madam Chair. There are different levels of blood alcohol. I seem to recall some discussion about making sure that testing equipment and training was in place across the NWT. There was discussion about graduated licensing for new drivers. There are quite a number of various things. Perhaps I will begin with a question. Could the Minister advise the status of implementation on those amendments to the NWT's driving and licensing acts? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member is correct. The bill was passed in June of 2003. The department had planned for the legislation to come into force in early 2004. However, because of financial constrains and a lack of resources, as a result we had to opt out to defer the program. We have included the funding required for the one staff person they are planning to hire and to also develop the manuals, communication and training that goes along with this. So we have identified the dollars required in this budget and we are planning to have the implementation take place in January of 2005.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

Gosh, yes. Perhaps I had missed something here. I wasn't aware that implementation was being deferred. Had the department advised of this earlier, Madam Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Madam Chair, the decision was made earlier, in January, to defer the project. We did not have the resources available, the dollars required. The cost of implementation was reduced from $300,000 to $100,000 and the ongoing salary dollars of $70,000 was also reduced. Therefore, we were not in a position to proceed. We have since identified the dollars. They are included in this year's budget. We have consulted with some of the groups that were lobbying part of this legislation and informed them of our decision.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Okay. So could the Minister give us a bit of detail on the dollars that are identified and the programs that we could anticipate getting started in this coming year then?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As part of this budget, we have identified $235,000 as part of this budget as one-time costs. We will be looking for ongoing salary dollars. This year's portion is also in the budget.