Mr. Speaker, thank you and thank you to the Member for the question. Obviously, we are concerned about leakage from the economy. I have had a number of discussions with the chambers of commerce around the Northwest Territories. As the Members opposite know, we had a proposal we were taking to some stakeholders with regard to the elimination of the BIP and the reduction of corporate taxes. There are a number of goals here that we had set with the interest of becoming more and more competitive. We have recognized, Mr. Speaker, if we're going to develop macroeconomic policy and do it in a way that's adequate, we're going to need some horsepower and some people on the ground who can do some of this work. The Minister of Finance is developing a unit. I think it's this kind of work that needs to be done if we're going to set a policy framework that helps us stop this leakage and keep the business in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a question, a group of questions that is paramount to the government in its totality. That's why I am asking the Premier those questions. I would expect that the Premier would be able to answer those questions that I am asking, Mr. Speaker. Again, my colleague, Ms. Lee, asked the Premier, produce some evidence that you have asked the federal government and the federal government has put us on the radar. Where is the proof? Where is the evidence? We have stood up here time and time again and asked the government to suggest things to the federal government. We never get any proof. Where is the proof that they have asked the federal government about a tax-free zone here, tax reductions? Where is the evidence of that, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said, I will provide the evidence that I have in terms of the questions that we have put forward, the commitments made by the federal government and I will provide that to all of the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay. Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transportation. Hopefully he hears my question, Mr. Speaker. It's with respect to the ferry situation in Fort Simpson. It has been on an hourly service for some time for a couple of years, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he can tell me why is the Fort Simpson ferry on an hourly service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the ferry at Fort Simpson and other locations over the years have been put on a scheduled service. The intention was to see if it would result in some savings in terms of fuel. Over the last couple of months, I directed out staff to do an analysis of whether that is the case to see if there is any positive results of having scheduled service versus on-call and on-demand service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just with respect to the scheduled service for the ferries, the Minister can probably correct me if I am wrong, but I think Fort Simpson is the only one on scheduled service, so I don't know how the department is saving money on all the ferries when there is only one service being impacted here. So how much longer will the Minister keep Fort Simpson on a scheduled basis and keep us stranded on our island? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated in my response earlier, I have directed the staff to see if there is any benefit of having scheduled services. We will have those results over the winter and we will take direction from the results and move forward for the next season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he can provide me with current and ongoing analysis as it goes on and perhaps an indication of whether they are going to lift that scheduled service for Fort Simpson. Once again, I would like to stress that it's the only ferry that's on a scheduled service, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would be glad to share that information with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can tell by the number of questions today regarding the royalty agreement, it's getting to be a big issue and something we have to work on very quickly. Along those lines, I would like to ask the Premier a couple of questions myself. In response to one of the questions, he mentioned six outstanding issues that they were dealing with. My question to the Premier is, who are these issues between? Is it between the territorial government and federal government, the territorial government and the aboriginal groups? Thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, all of the six questions are between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. All of them are of interest to aboriginal organizations and governments as well, particularly the one that deals with how we will treat offshore resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.