Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was a very good answer by the Minister responsible but, Mr. Speaker, the Minister talked about value for money which I'm really glad to hear that on this side, because I noted earlier that we spent approximately $4 million in the Spanish Expo, but at present we are going to one of our largest markets for the aurora and we are going to spend one-eighth of that dollar spent several years ago.

Mr. Speaker, we are competing against large organizations, but while we have a Japan oversight committee led by the Minister, we don't have an aurora

rep on this. The Minister could argue that we have somebody from the NWT Tourism Association, but they also represent the dog mushers, the fishermen, the hotels, the bed and breakfasts, they represent everybody and we are going into a very, very, very unique market. They bring in $16 million a year; 9,000 plus people. Would the Minister at this time commit to addressing the lack of a specific aurora rep on this oversight committee? Would he address that problem and add a person from the aurora industry to this committee? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member well knows from our briefing today that not only will the Tourism Association be represented on our Ministerial oversight or steering committee, but we've committed to work with the aurora tourism industry and convene a forum so they can bring their input to bear on the process and the planning. We're also, and I think many Members have seen the advertisements in the newspapers, looking to the private sector to partner with us in hosting events. Any private sector operator who wants to come and make a pitch and talk about an event that they would like to host and customers that they would like to attract to an event at Expo is welcome to do so. That's where we see we can really lever much more money for this event other than just the government money that we can bring to bear.

So I think those two issues really, our involvement of the aurora tourism industry will be evident and we certainly think that we can get more out of this Expo than just GNWT funding. There's a real significant amount of development going on in the Northwest Territories currently and we think many of those players will be keen to invest in this Expo. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, respectfully, I think the Minister really missed the issue because he, as well as everyone there, knows in this industry that this Canadian Pavilion, one of its biggest themes, its main theme is aurora. Why wouldn't we have someone from the aurora industry on this? On this oversight committee we have someone from the diamond industry, we have someone from the arts area, we have development, we have the air transportation, yet the theme of this Expo is sharing the aurora. Why are we missing this opportunity, Mr. Speaker? Would the Minister look at this problem? Would he address it? It's a stroke of the pen to put someone's full advice all the time on this committee about the development. Would the Minister reconsider that option to get direct input, not indirect input? Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will have direct input from the industry. As I said, we'll convene a forum to discuss our approach. Fully one-half of the sponsorship opportunities at this Expo, one-half of the opportunity to co-host events both in the evenings and the afternoons are being offered to the aurora tourism industry. That is the large market in Japan in terms of tourism. So when we talk about tourism, we are largely talking about aurora tourism. I expect that we'll see a lot of interest after we convene this forum from the individual aurora tourism operators in hosting events at our pavilion and look forward to that collaboration. I think that's where the real value will be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the Minister is largely right on what he's said; but I still say that we're missing the capacity on this oversight committee. I mean, from the sounds of it, it's a diamond Expo. We're sending people from the diamonds area. Maybe it's an airline Expo. I'm not sure. But we should have someone from the aurora industry to offer their very specific specialized information on this.

Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories, in my mind, built the aurora tourism industry. The aurora tourism started off with about 30 people coming to the Northwest Territories because one guy had a dream. Now we have 9,000 people coming here, we have $16 million being spent here of new money and here we are flogging it in their face saying we don't care about the Japanese tourism industry. We care more about diamonds over there, but heck, they could buy Canadian diamonds anywhere in Canada, but they can't see aurora anywhere in the world like they can in Yellowknife or in the Northwest Territories in places, such as Fort Smith...

Mr. Hawkins, do you have a question?

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister going to do to demonstrate his commitment to this issue when we are competing against Alaska direct flights, Yukon and other areas of the world on aurora industry? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I've answered the question. I'm not sure how many different ways I can phrase a response to the same question. On our oversight committee, the diamond sector is represented, yes. It's going to play a very important role in this Expo, as is the tourism sector and the aboriginal business sector, northern arts and crafts sector, and transport is there because obviously there's a real benefit to the transport industry from the tourism that will be generated and also because we're interested in exploring potential sponsorship opportunities. A large part of the budget will go into transporting our equipment and

transporting our contingency to Japan. Our commitment is in the $500,000. Our commitment is in the approach to partnership with the private sector. I really think that will be the benefit in this Expo and I think this approach is a much better one than we've taken in the past. I think we're going to get more bang for our buck and I think the Member will be impressed with the results. We'll certainly continue to work with committee to discuss our approach and I look forward to being able to convince the Member that this is, in fact, the right approach. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have to ask the Minister how he can justify having a diamond representative on this oversight committee, an arts person on this committee, as well as even a transportation person on this committee when, of course, the NWT Tourism Association would represent those. How can he justify going into those areas when the NWT Tourism Association already represents them? There's significant overlap there when he can justify that we don't need an aurora representative. How can the Minister justify that, noting one of the themes of Expo is aurora? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things we did when we talked about how to approach this oversight committee was to go to industry representatives and look for associations that would represent those industries. It would have been difficult for us, I would suggest to you, to go and pick one airline and decide that we were going to ask them to have a representative. Instead we went to the Northern Air Transport Association and they found us somebody from the airline. We've done likewise in tourism. We found somebody in northern arts and crafts who has sat on a number of boards and could provide some objective input. We were looking to keep commercial interest for the most part to a minimum on this oversight committee and to involve individual businesses in these forums. So that's what we're going to do with aurora tourism. It would have been difficult to pick a representative from one of the organizations in the Northwest Territories and at the risk of excluding others. So this was considered the most appropriate approach, and I assure the Member that we're interested in their input and we'll convene these forums and look forward to their very valuable input. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to attempt to get a better answer from the Minister of Health and Social Services. For the benefit of both of us, I'd like to narrow down the scope of our debate to the walk-in clinic as stated in my Member's statement. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Minister is well aware of the pilot walk-in clinic that was implemented by a local doctor. The doctor decided doctors saw the need for this in town and he set it up himself at the Centre for Northern Families. He walks in there with his files on a weekday, a Tuesday afternoon, and he just sees patients as they come in. It has been hugely successful and I'm sure he can provide the government with a lot of good information about how this can be expanded. So I'd like to ask the Minister if the Minister or the department has taken any review of this walk-in clinic with the view of seeing it expanded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm aware that this clinic has performed very well. I've indicated to the Member what the plans are currently for the clinics. We've invested money to upgrade the Frame Lake Family Physicians clinic and we're looking at ways to do some significant readjustment in the downtown core. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Do those investments and changing of clinics include a plan for a walk-in clinic? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.