Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We also read, with interest, the story in the national media, and I'd have to say that, obviously, we're very happy that the federal government is sitting down with Imperial to have these types of discussions, and clearly looking at a number of creative options to mitigate risk for the project in general. That means all the project proponents, the producers, and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. That's certainly welcome news. Of course, we're not officially at the table in these discussions between the federal government and Imperial. We probably should be. I would suggest if there are issues being discussed of this nature, we may very well be supportive, and I think we are, but we need to know what it will mean for residents of the NWT if schemes are being envisioned that might see royalties forgone and equity interest accumulated. We would say that's an asset, or a revenue stream, that should rightly flow to northerners, that should rightly flow to residents of the NWT, and will, post-devolution. But clearly, we need to be involved in those discussions, and are happy that the discussions are underway. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Yes, the Minister has certainly read my script on this one. If the problem that the proponents are having is that they want Ottawa to cut them a deal so that they get away with paying less royalties and taxes, just what does that mean for our stake in this? Mr. Speaker, the oil and gas belongs to northerners. We've been working very hard at getting a fair deal here. Now Ottawa is coming into this picture, let's connect the dots here. Does this mean that the Northwest Territories should be downscaling, or revising, our expectations of what we will see in the long term from oil and gas revenue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

No, Mr. Speaker, I think when we look at these types of options, it would be our expectation that, for instance, if the federal government were to, in lieu of royalties, take an equity position in the pipeline, that that would become the equity position of all residents of the NWT upon devolution. So whether it's a royalty paid in gas, or a royalty paid in cash money, we would suggest that that's a royalty that needs to accrue to the residents of the Northwest Territories. So we may, in fact, be indifferent, but these are all possibilities, at this point. We're really not sure what's going on in terms of the discussions. We don't have anything official. We read the same news that Members are reading, and I think we would just suggest that we need to be at the table for these discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to make sure that we have the fullest possible review of this. But we should be cautious, and I think I'm hearing that from the Minister. We should be cautious about welcoming this without a really good inspection of it. One of the parallels that we should be considering is that the federal government already has a major stake in the Norman Wells oil field. They have had that since the 1920s. This has been a major sticking point in terms of getting a share of that resource for the North. I'm wondering if there's a parallel that the Minister should be looking at in terms of that infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Well, Mr. Speaker, it may be the option that the federal government is proposing. We're not entirely sure, but the Member is right in that this has been a sore point for northerners for quite some time. In Norman Wells, I believe the royalties were foregone and there was an equity interest built up in the project. The federal government characterizes that as federal investment. We say that's revenue that belongs to residents of the NWT. I think the difference this time would be if that scheme is proposed, we would know the rules of engagement going in, and we would very clearly establish that that's our interest. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mrs. McLellan, has direct responsibility for this file. Will the government be approaching Mrs. McLellan to see that we can get a place at the table to follow this new development as closely as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me first say that we've been very happy with the work that the Deputy Prime Minister has been doing on this file. I think media accounts, only short weeks ago, about a doomed pipeline, I think we can all see that that's not at all accurate. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. The federal government is doing a lot of work, as are the Aboriginal Pipeline Group, communities up and down this valley, and our government, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure that our Premier will be in discussions very shortly with the Deputy Prime Minister, both to urge her to continue the good work that she's doing, and to indicate that we need to be involved in these discussions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Transportation, going back to my Member's statement, from earlier today, where I was speaking about warrants of committal and how a recent court ruling by Justice Schuler says that a warrant for committal cannot now be executed without a judicial hearing happening first. I'd like to ask the Minister of Transportation if his department would be willing to give any consideration to linking the motor vehicles registry database with that of the fines registry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I guess the short answer to that is yes. This is something we've been working on, as a department, for a number of years now. I think we initially started working on how this could be made possible, in the year 2004. There was some concern over security of information, and who had access to that, and we were also concerned about having compatible systems between Justice and Department of Transportation. I think we've resolved those issues, and we are looking to implementing something early in the new fiscal year. I'm hoping that will be sometime in April. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm wondering if the Minister and his department have done any work on what the cost would be associated with the court costs, versus what the cost would be to implement such a system at the Department of Transportation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What we have been working on is a system that would allow us to have the Department of Justice electronically notify the Department of Transportation road licensing division that a person has an infraction on his record, and it would be red flagged so that when somebody comes in to renew their driver's licence, the staff person would be able to indicate to that person that he or she cannot renew her licence until they clear up the infractions. They would then have to go to the Department of Justice to clear up that account, or that fine, that had to be paid. We have not done any evaluation of what it would cost going through the court system versus what we have. That's not something that we'd be interested in. We are trying to set up a mechanism that would have people clear up their accounts, and this is one of the tools we would use to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear the answers from the Minister. I think this is an important issue that the department has to be paying attention to. Last year alone, there were over 400 warrants of committal, and it's expected, probably this year, it will be the same amount. I want to ask the Minister, why doesn't the Department of Transportation, today, issue renewal notices for licence renewals and registration renewal? I think that's an important function of the department: to let people know when their licences are expiring, and their registrations are expiring. I'd like to know why they don't currently do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.