Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the Member is asking my personal opinion on who should be in the business of supporting festivals, and whether in fact that should be government that is expected to subsidize festivals, whether it is municipalities. All of these questions are good questions. I am not sure my opinion is as relevant as the discussion of the issues and debate that we could engage committee in and talk about what happens in other jurisdictions and talk about how our support could best be targeted. Obviously, we have limited resources, and we do know that arts and funding for the arts has been sparse and does not compete well with other priorities. I think it is very much akin to the discussion we had yesterday around tourism infrastructure and support for our parks. I think that many other priorities rise to the top. That is something that we need to address in the government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is going to be to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Speaker, his department recognizes the challenge of implementing the new NWT deal for some of our communities. In his statement today, he indicated that his department plans to explore various options. What is the time frame for the department to look at these options?

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am assuming that the Member is talking about the new deal that we rolled out as a territorial government. The target date for implementation is 2008. We have a number of strategies we still have to roll out. We have already announced a number of things in terms of what we plan to do immediately. There are still a number of things that we have to decide how we are going to move forward with. One of the things that we have already put into the new budget for the next coming fiscal year is the transferring of property tax revenues over to the communities in the form of a grant. We are also looking at increasing the community infrastructure funding to a base amount so that there will be a lot more available for non-tax-based communities and also the tax-based communities to deal with their infrastructure requirements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is clear that I wasn't sure whether the Member was referring to the federal new deal or the Government of the Northwest Territories new deal. Mr. Speaker, our implementation date is actually 2007. We would like to have our communities starting to work as municipal taxation municipalities. We have a number of initiatives that we still have to develop. This is still in the early stages. We have committed to do some things upfront as I mentioned before about the property taxes being transferred over in terms of a grant. We have a lot of work in terms of assessing what each community is capable of handling and what they are going to need in terms of resources and capacity development. There is still a lot of work yet. This is an initiative that requires continual attention for the next while. As we develop and decide on what we will incorporate as part of this initiative, we will release it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know how to rephrase my question again, but his department identified that it is going to be a challenge to implement the Northwest Territories new deal for some of our communities. He indicated in his Minister's statement, to address this issue, MACA plans to explore options for innovative capacity building at the community level. They are going to be looking at different options, Mr. Speaker. What is the time frame for the department to do this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I have indicated to him the implementation date. Mr. Speaker, the government's new deal is intended to put new funding for capital, to allow for decision-making in the communities at the community level on how they want to deal with infrastructure, governance, and a number of different issues. Each community is different. We have settlements. We have hamlets. We have tax-based communities. We have non-tax-based communities. Some of this information and some of the discussion is going on as we speak. We continue to meet with the NWT Association of Communities to decide how we will move forward on some of these initiatives. Some communities are ready to move forward now. Some are not willing to move forward. Some are reluctant to take on some of this responsibility. Some want more information. So there has to be a lot of discussion. Our target date is for 2007. I am assuming that is what the Member is asking me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, his department, through the School of Community Government, is going to be exploring these options. Based on the option that they select, they are going to implement the new deal for the communities. Obviously, because it is a challenge to implement the NWT new deal, there seems to be a problem that not all communities are going to take advantage of this new deal that the Minister is going to implement by April 1st.

For these communities that are going to have or are having these problems, the School of Community Government is going to be looking at various options geared for specific communities. It could be different for each community, as the Minister says, but what is the time frame? Do we have a priority list for the communities that are going to first, second, or third? What is the time frame that we are looking at? I realize, in his statement, Mr. Speaker, that he said, by 2008, he would like to have all communities implementing the community's municipal...(inaudible)...authority. That is my question to the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have already embarked on a journey of setting up this new initiative. We have targeted transfer of the property tax revenues to the communities, as indicated before, in the new fiscal year. We are also looking at planning over the next while. Our target date is to start implementing in 2007. We're also hoping that everybody will be on stream by 2008. But, having said that, there is no guarantee that we will be ready in each community. But we are in a position where we are going to work with the communities. We're not going to set this initiative in place and walk away. There may have to be capacity building. There are a number of issues and we have to identify ways that we're going to solve them. We don't have all the answers at this point; it's still a work in progress and we will continue to update the Members as things develop. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier. I just wanted to let the Premier know that I am getting phone calls from constituents, as probably are other Members of this House, with concern over the rising cost of home heating oil. As I mentioned in my Member's statement, the cost has increased in the past three or four years by 34 percent and people are suffering, especially folks that are in the lower-income ranges. They can't buy groceries, they can't pay other bills because all their money is going

to heating their homes, which is an essential service, Mr. Speaker; an essential need and necessity.

I know a few years ago the government had brought in a Fuel Subsidy Program for individuals or families under a certain income threshold. Does the government have any plans, given the high rate of fuel oil, to have a look at bringing back a fuel subsidy for people who really need it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me say that our government is looking very seriously at the issue of energy and the cost of providing energy. I can say, Mr. Speaker, that we provide a lot of subsidies right now to people who are facing hardship. First of all, we spend over $8 million a year subsidizing the cost of power back to the Yellowknife rate, for communities outside of Yellowknife who are not on the hydro grid. We also spend about $31 million a year, I think it is, on housing subsidies and a big chunk of that is energy. I don't know how much offhand, but a big chunk of that is energy.

Also, through Income Support, we have a hardship allowance, I believe, that people can apply for if they are suffering undue hardship because of the price of fuel. We also have the Seniors' Fuel Subsidy Program. So there are a number of ways that we're already subsidizing the cost of energy, but are we considering a cross-the-board subsidy for the cost of energy? Not now, because it seems that the prices we're paying now for energy are going to stabilize at around where they are now, somewhere around the $50 a barrel for crude oil. That will set the prices.

The prices are going to be high, but what's the answer, Mr. Speaker? The answer is not for us to subsidize this forever, it would be too expensive. The answer is for us to find ways of being more efficient in the use of energy and that's where our focus is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.