Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the intent of this funding was to assist the communities to prepare and deal with the regulatory review process. As I indicated earlier, it was funding we felt we needed to put into the hands of the communities to assist them to deal with the pipeline construction application. The hearings are going to be starting fairly quick this summer, late summer more than likely. The communities needed the resources to be able to deal with it.

There are 11 communities that have been recognized outside of the Mackenzie gas study area. We did not provide a lot of money for them to take part in this process. We were able to provide some dollars, however, our intention was to be able to deal with the communities that were directly affected and recognized by the Mackenzie gas project environmental impact statement or were recognized as interveners.

These dollars are one time. We're looking at it as a short-term solution to a larger issue. We're expecting the federal government to have some dollars. My colleague from Industry, Tourism and Investment tells me that we're expecting some federal intervention money. We're hoping that will provide the dollars, as the Member is asking, to the communities that were receiving the smaller amount. But this is really intended just to carry the communities through until such time as other dollars can be recognized. It's a short-term solution.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. I have Mr. Braden next on the list. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A lot of ink and time has been devoted to the issue here. It was, I think, a very useful and decisive move that the pipeline group, lead by Imperial Oil, took the decision to declare not a halt, but a major slow down to all their work, and the message in that was that it signalled that they did not have the confidence to proceed at the same rapid pace as they have had related to political and regulatory problems.

It seems that in the month or five weeks since they took that move, a lot has happened. Indeed, it focussed our minds. We got Ottawa, as the Premier said, to give this project more recognition and urgency and vitality than I've ever heard from them. It certainly jolted northern leaders to revisit this immense project and test our commitment to it. I think for a while there, Mr. Chairman, it seemed that we really did have our legs back under us. We were firing on all cylinders and there was a sense of renewed confidence, especially for the people who live in the affected communities up and down the valley who have been looking for the related job and related development work on this project and the investors in communities like Inuvik. Unfortunately, we're hearing the brakes are being put on the kind of investment this project is going to need in that community.

I haven't heard that the momentum has been maintained, Mr. Chairman, since we did get our legs and, as I say, we started firing on all cylinders. Whatever analogies you want to make, I'm not seeing the movement along with the sort of urgency and expediency that we all felt was required.

The Premier has been quite candid with us this afternoon in saying that there is indeed a pace in the successive negotiations that is starting to become an issue now. In trying to make a little bit of a list here of all the different levels and layers of negotiations that are going on, there's the one on the start-up talks for $100 million on the social and infrastructure funding, there are the longer-term negotiations on the resource revenue sharing and devolution regarding all the resources in the Northwest Territories, the negotiations going on between the pipeline group and the First Nations on impact benefit agreements. I don't know that I've even heard when the next meeting date has been set here. So aside from a lot of people saying the right things and nodding in the right direction, are we really that much further ahead in terms of getting this project back on track and advancing it than we were a few months ago?

The Premier is quite correct; Ottawa is the major player here. They are under extreme distraction right now. The sense of frustration comes back again. What can we do to restore the sense of partnership and teamwork and unity that this incredible project could mean for all of Canada, but yet it lags again?

So if we can shake this in any way it's to ask the Premier on those three different sets of negotiations that at least seem to be apparent on the infrastructure, the impact in our communities, on the resource revenue sharing process, and on the IBA negotiations. Is there indeed sort of a process and a framework that we can anticipate, or are things as much in the air as we might be lead to believe? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sure that Imperial and its partners are still confident the pipeline is going to go ahead. They've spent $350 million or so, so far. They're continuing to spend on it. It's not a matter of confidence and we're still confident it will go ahead. We're going to work on that assumption. I believe the federal government will want to see it happen, too. So there's a fair bit of confidence there. But what Imperial has done is slowed down their spending on it because they have to get over the hurdles on access and benefit agreements and on socioeconomic impacts, the regulatory issues and fiscal certainty, those kinds of issues before they continue to invest heavily on the ground with geotechnical work. Otherwise their investors are going to begin to question what they're doing.

So Imperial has not slowed down. They still have roughly 200 people who are working away every day here on this. A lot of their work is focused on regulatory and on access and benefit agreements and answering requests for more information that have been put forward. So they're dealing with that side of it. They continue, but they have slowed their spending down.

The aboriginal governments continue, to my knowledge, to deal with the access and benefit agreements and they're working with us on socioeconomic impacts. The Deh Cho have their own negotiations going on following their legal challenges to the federal government. I understand that's moving along. So there is a fair bit of negotiating going on between the aboriginal governments, the industry and with the federal government.

The federal government has met with us at the political level. They also have their deputies working on this. The Deputy Prime Minister has appointed a fellow by the name of Horgan. The deputy minister of DIAND is the lead and I believe he's working full time. His time is dedicated full time to pulling this all together on the federal government's behalf. So there is a lot of that work going on.

Our officials were in Ottawa late last week and met with their federal counterparts. I am looking at a meeting as early as Wednesday, more likely on Thursday, and I'm ready to get the permission of Members to go to that as soon as we have that if we do get a meeting.

So things are still moving along. I want to make sure we keep that momentum going and I'll do everything I can to keep this very much a Canadian issue because it is bigger than the Northwest Territories. I want to make sure it's understood that it's a Canadian issue right across the country.

So things are moving along, but I guess I get eager and I want to move this along every week with another meeting at the political level. I realize sometimes you have to be more patient than that. I don't want to give the impression that this is somehow stalled. It hasn't. There's a lot of work going on in the back rooms.

As I said earlier, today I've spoken to two aboriginal leaders from the Northwest Territories who are in Ottawa right now and both of them assured me they're raising this at the aboriginal roundtable with the Deputy Prime Minister, with the Minister of DIAND, with the Prime Minister, and so on as well. So we're continuing to do everything we can. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. I have Mr. Pokiak next. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question on Minister's Statement 3-15(4) with regard to fiscal update. I'm just wondering if the Minister of Finance can indicate to us if that panel has been formed yet to visit the issue of formula financing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the work on the federal expert panel has started, as well as the Council of the Federation panel has been announced and their work is starting. The one with the federal government, the expert panel, is from the federal government viewpoint looking at the whole area of equalization formula financing and will report back by late 2005, around December. The Council of the Federation panel which has a slightly more open mandate to look at both at what we call a vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalance, on that side of it they will be reporting back around December, as well. Hopefully with that work we will be able to substantiate our needs as a territorial government and why we are asking for the funds and the arrangements we have with the federal government. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. I don't have anyone else on the list. At this time, does committee agree that we have concluded discussion this afternoon on Ministers' Statements 1-15(4), 3-15(4), 4-15(4) and 5-15(4)?

Agreed. Ms. Lee.

I just have a very short remark to add to the...Not a remark really, I have some questions for the Premier on both resource revenue sharing devolution and this Mackenzie Valley pipeline issue. I know that the government and the Premier and many leaders from the North are trying to bring this together and trying to get a resolution. I have to tell you, Mr. Chairman, when I heard about Imperial Oil pulling out their work for now, or slowing down the work, at first I, like everyone else, was quite alarmed. But I started seeing opportunities for this. I thought an impetus that could give more urgency to this and force the partners to all come together and try to resolve this, all parties including the Deh Cho leadership and their negotiating policies to be worked out. I believe that when human minds, human interests and human desires all converge together, it could be the right moment for a good arrangement to be arrived at.

I remain hopeful that that announcement would be continued to be used as an impetus for this to be resolved. I am thinking, or assuming, that there are a lot of people working hard to get there, not only in the government and in the aboriginal leadership in the North and the business leadership, but business interests around the country and around the world.

Since then we have heard many deals being made by the federal government with various provinces on various files. Over the last few months, the federal minority government has worked out an arrangement for Newfoundland/Labrador. Prime Minister Martin sat in a room for eight hours and worked out some sort of financing arrangement with Premier McGuinty of Ontario. There are slews of announcements being made on early childhood development. I am wondering if the Premier in any of his interactions with the federal government and whether Prime Minister Martin or Deputy Minister McLellan...What do we do to force all the parties, not force, but create and environment where we could...I just think that if Prime Minister Martin could get all the parties together, or if he had the desire to...I think he is one who has shown with his years of business experience, he could, I think, bring all the parties together and work out a deal after eight hours. I don't know if I am totally out in left field on this, but I think if given all the interest and desires...I do believe that everybody in the Territories wants a deal; it is a question of what kind of deal and how it works for them.

In his conversations with the Prime Minister and any of the leaders at the federal level, has any suggestion like that been made or does he see something like that happening? I think I am speaking mostly for the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, but even with resource revenue sharing and devolution. All of us sitting here -- I don't know what it is like for the new Members of this Assembly -- for six years we have been talking about getting close to a deal and still not seeing the results of it. I am wondering if I can ask the Premier that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Lee. Mr. Premier.

Mr. Chairman, first of all on the resource revenue sharing and devolution, that one we do have a commitment from the Prime Minister and I continually remind the federal government that he made a commitment to have an agreement-in-principle this spring and that we are working toward it.

I think we are closer than we ever have been. As I said, there are five outstanding items. When I get a chance to meet with Minister Scott -- he is the lead Minister on the devolution side -- I intend to propose to him that we resolve those at the political level in what Ms. Lee has referred to as one of those six, or seven or eight hour meetings. We just sit down and do it.

On the resource revenue sharing, that one is a little trickier. Mr. Goodale has been very busy. We haven't made the progress we would like to have made. It is not because we haven't been trying, it is just that the Minister has been harder to get to meet with. We still want to do that and I am at a loss as to how to speed that process up.

Clearly, the Prime Minister has made the Deputy Prime Minister the lead on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. I have been working closely with her on it. We have had the meetings. I've mentioned we've had three or four meetings with her over the last eight months or so on this issue. The last one was with Mr. Bell and Mr. Roland. We had the NWT Day, of course. We have been doing what we can. I have suggested to the Deputy Prime Minister that she has to meet with more than just me separately and industry separately. I don't believe she has met with the aboriginal leaders, but she has to meet with all of us together.

I recognize that we have a different kind of mandate, too. Industry is doing whatever they can for their investors and the aboriginal leaders are doing, at a regional level, what they need to for their people, and we have to look at the broader public interest. We still have to sit down in one room and figure out how we move this thing ahead. I think meeting separately, in my view, and I have made this known to the Deputy Prime Minister, is not going to achieve the results in the end. We have to get together, whether it is on a bilateral basis with the aboriginal groups for example first, then later with industry; however we do it. But having separate talks is not moving it as quickly as I hope we can.

I will be taking the opportunity, I hope before the end of June, certainly in the summer, before the end of June and possibly this week, to remind the Prime Minister of the commitments that he has made and give him my assessments of the progress we are making or where things are being slowed down, as well. Those are the intentions that I have at this point. I still hope to have a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of DIAND and Finance this week. Whether it will materialize, we will see. I am told it may happen on Thursday. People are traveling on Friday, but we will see.

Ms. Cournoyea is there this week. I know she has taken the opportunity to talk to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is going to be giving me a call. I have been relaying messages back and forth to him, as well, to get him on side. We are making every effort we can to pull this through but, as I say, it is not completely within our control. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. No other speakers on the list. Mr. Yakeleya.

Just a quick one, Mr. Chairman. This goes back to the issues that Mr. Handley has been talking about in the Northwest Territories. Is there somewhere in the plans with all these different negotiating tables happening and all the things that are coming to the fore, is there a point in this government that we will get together with the Circle of Northern Leaders and just have one topic on the go ahead of the pipeline, other issues? There are so many different facets to this proposal that just reading News/North that Deh Cho settles a suit, which was in today's news. The Deh Cho is allowing some question of the pipeline. There are several regions that have settled land claims agreements. There are others that haven't been settled and they are still trying to do their best to come to some conclusions to make a project like this go.

I guess I am saying is there somewhere in the cards, Mr. Chairman, where regions and communities should get together and focus our energy on one issue? There are many concerns out there. I support Minister McLeod's initiatives in terms of helping out our communities. We need help like that to get going. We need to be there with them. More importantly is the leadership in terms of this government. There are many sensitive issues and we have to be careful how we make a go of it. I think people are looking for that type of direction. The Protected Areas Strategy is so important because the pipeline could go under our waters and on some of our sacred sites. We also want to leave some legacy in our communities. Mr. Chairman, are there any types of discussions that one day we will all get together and have a discussion on all these important issues that would contribute to the nation building of the Northwest Territories and have the federal government take notice of some of the urgencies in here that they need to act upon?

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would welcome the opportunity to get together with Members in a committee, possibly in AOC, to go through the negotiations that we have ongoing with Ottawa. The most immediate one in my mind is the pipeline. That's the most immediate. The most important one in terms of our long-term solution is devolution and resource revenue sharing. But, Mr. Chairman, there are at least 14 different sets of negotiations between our government and Ottawa, some of them less significant, but there are a lot of negotiations happening all the time. Mr. Chairman, I would be happy to sit down with the Ministers and AOC and take a look at the whole list of things we are negotiating right now in order to determine the priorities and then what we can to get out to the communities and explain to people what we are doing on their behalf and why we are doing it the way we are. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am surprised to hear about the negotiations, Mr. Chairman. I know it's a very complicated set of negotiations. I think that's what we want in our communities. What is being done on our behalf? There are also aboriginal land claims agreements being talked about. Sometimes we miss communications and talking with each other on some of the issues. It's really important for this government's leadership to know what's being done on their behalf in terms of looking at the agreements that are coming down. I think people would be very happy to know that we are working on their behalf on some of these really crucial agreements such as resource revenue sharing and devolution, and we are making progress. That's the leadership I would like to see from this government acting on our behalf. Let's let the people know what's going on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Premier.

Mr. Chairman, I think that's good advice, very good advice. We will certainly consider that as we get ready for the general assemblies and for our own trips out to communities where we are meeting with them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Does committee agree that we have concluded Ministers' Statements 1-15(4), 3-15(4), 4-15(4) and 5-15(4)?