Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe the honourable Member for Nahendeh doesn't know the background of the situation with the Village of Fort Simpson. Maybe I can give him a little bit of clarification.
Three years ago, Mr. Speaker, the new community government funding policy was implemented. At that time, the funding for a number of communities was reduced. One of them was the Village of Fort Simpson. To ease the pain of the drastic reduction in the new funding formula, the Financial Management Board of the day decided to assist the Village of Fort Simpson for a three-year period. That period is ending this current year, 2003-2004. The Village of Fort Simpson knew that this funding was going to sunset this year. The honourable Member is implying that the government is making a drastic cut to the village's formula funding. That's not the case, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the municipality had ample time. We, as a government and the government of the day in the 14th Assembly, didn't want to burden them with this drastic situation. That's why they gave them additional funding for three years. My department has also offered to assist them to look at reverting to municipal status. I have already offered to give them funding to undertake this review. So they knew that this funding was going to be sunsetted, and I instructed my officials to meet with the municipality and their officials to see what other alternative we could look at in terms of getting additional resources for the municipality.
Mr. Speaker, to date, I don't believe that the officials of the Village of Fort Simpson and my departmental officials have met to discuss this important issue. Thank you.