Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some more questions for the Minister of Transportation. I think the Minister and Cabinet are going to think I took the palmistry course at Aurora College, but honestly I am not a fortune teller and I didn't know the Minister was going to be tabling the 2004 report later today.

---Laughter

I wanted to ask the Minister today for an update on where the Department of Transportation is at with the City of Yellowknife in getting the Kam Lake access road into the industrial park further along. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess you could say we are not much further along than the last time the Member asked this question. We've had some discussion with the city. The city has, along with our Department of Transportation, agreed that we should be drafting and signing a memorandum of understanding. The city has taken the time to put its first draft together. We are at the stage where we are now reviewing the document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are for Mr. Bell, as the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, and they relate to the recently-tabled document, a management plan for the Bathurst Caribou herd. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to ask the Minister where this plan goes from here. It is phrased in here as a recommendation of the planning committee. The question that I have for the Minister, Mr. Speaker, is what obligation is on the department to adopt this recommended plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are going to sit down now and talk to the planning committee that put this document together about the next steps forward in terms of public consultation. Obviously we have had many discussions. The groups involved with the planning committee are those charged with management of the herd, but there are many more stakeholders who have an interest in the management of caribou and need to be consulted. We need to have that discussion with them prior to anything taking place in terms of changes to the plan or, as I have indicated before, adoption of the plan. None of that will take place until we've had discussions in consultation with stakeholders. Only then, if there is some agreement amongst those stakeholders about how we move forward, are we discussing options at that point. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to hear about the public and stakeholder response. I think one of the things that is reasonably standard and conventional with this kind of thing is a peer review at the scientific and the professional level. Will this plan be subjected to that kind of scrutiny? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe the Member can provide me with more clarification by what he means by peer review. As we go out to consult with stakeholders, many, through that consultation, will have a chance to weigh in on the recommendations, discuss the potential ethicality, or lack thereof, as they see it, of some of some of the options. If he's referring to technical experts, academics, scientists or other hunters, I am not exactly sure. But there will be a broad-based consultation on this and I think that's what the Member is looking for. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has pretty much outlined the area that I had in my questioning; that is, technical professionals in wildlife

management from other jurisdictions. I can certainly confirm that that is where I would like this to go. Mr. Speaker, a particular stakeholder concern has been with those commercial stakeholders, including outfitters, who are potentially put into a very tenuous position with some of these recommendations, one of which has seen them put out of business if herds get to a dangerously low level. Mr. Speaker, would implementation of this plan include backup plans or default plans or assistance for these commercial organizations if, indeed, they have faced a shutdown? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We haven't had any of that type of discussion because we are really not there yet. I want to give the assurance to everybody out there listening, we are not talking at this point about a reduction in tags. So I think it's premature to start talking about what we do if the industry fails. We are not there. I want to give that assurance. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister provide some information about when he anticipates this public and stakeholder consultation will proceed and when we may see some finalization? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. RWED has agreed to organize this consultative process, which should, we think, with current timelines, culminate in a forum to be held in May of this year. At that point, we will have solicited public input and feedback. The planning committee has asked for that feedback to happen by the end of April. So we think in May we can provide that, have that forum in May of 2005 and then have a discussion around what we do next. If the report is not already posted on the web site, it will be very shortly so that everyone can have easy access even if they are from outside the jurisdiction. Only at that point will we be discussing harvest levels and having some more information in terms of the strength of the herd and the monitoring we've been doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to continue talking about the concerns of arrears with my favourite Housing Minister, the Honourable David Krutko. Mr. Speaker, if a person in market housing is being kicked out because they can't afford to live there anymore, and obviously they owe arrears because that is what we are talking about, and they owe arrears so they can't be put on the list, as the Minister clearly says, then where do they go if they are being kicked out of market housing and they can't get on the list for social housing? Where do they go? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, if the tenant is in public housing and they have arrears, they know, if they have been given an eviction notice, that they have six to eight weeks to respond to that notice. In between that time, they can go to the local housing authority and work out a payback plan where they commit themselves to pay back their arrears over a period of time through an arrangement they work out with the authority. If they commit themselves to that arrangement, and they pay on the time they say they are going to pay, they can remain there. But if they break that agreement and they do not continue to pay and the arrears continue to go up, they would have to go through the eviction process. If they are already there, there is a process that can work them through their arrears payback plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.