Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On time and on budget is our mandate.

---Laughter

Certainly, I can commit to the Member that we will certainly have a look and try to expedite the land transfers and removal of the towers, because it is a very important project to the community of Fort Good Hope and our North as well. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

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

Mr. Speaker, the deputy ministers report on a day-by-day basis to the Minister, so if it is an issue with regard to some of the daily functions as a deputy minister, then that really should go through the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I don't think there is any specific protocol we have. We understand, though, that if it is of a general nature, then I would certainly be willing to sit down with the person who had concerns. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Who ultimately makes the call, though, Mr. Speaker? Is it the Minister who is responsible for the deputy ministers or is it the

Premier who is responsible for the deputy ministers? If I have questions on job performance, who do I raise those with? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Legally, they report to me. Legally, I make the final call, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to request that the Premier make some time available for me here maybe even tomorrow to discuss the issue of the performance of a deputy minister of this government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, sure. We don't make appointments here, but certainly I will make time available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral questions. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Environment and Natural Resources Minister in terms of the caribou in the region here. I got a call from Colville Lake, Mr. Speaker, over the lunch hour. The Colville Lake people are doing their own count. They are doing their own monitoring. The elders are not panicking about the reduction and the decline of caribou. The Colville Lake people said there are lots of caribou out there. How has the Minister's department or what type of methods has his department used to count the caribou? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize that the people of Colville are doing their own count. I am not sure what methods they are using. We have in our historical practice of counting the caribou, we were involved with the Sahtu Resource Management Board. They have been involved in the caribou counts in that area. They share the responsibility in terms of the numbers or the work that was done there. We have tried to use as much as we can from some of the information from the traditional knowledge efforts. We are in the process of working towards having a caribou summit in the new year. We would like to bring in all of the people and start looking at the different numbers. I recognize, of course, that some other jurisdictions are doing their own work and may be contesting our numbers. We've gone out and done accounts twice now and we've also done radio collaring for aerial photos and all the standard practice of counting caribou was used in this case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like other regions in the Northwest Territories, we, in the Sahtu, depend on these special animals to keep us alive and well. Mr. Speaker, my point is that the people in Colville Lake, especially the elders, are not panicking, Mr. Speaker, as they have extraordinary knowledge of the caribou. Yet, we have not used their skills or knowledge to contribute to the caribou survey in the direction dealing with their reported decline. Could the bureaucracy of this government bypass Cabinet and the Legislative Assembly and pass their own legislation? No, they could not. Why are we asking aboriginal people to ignore what the elders are saying? Why are we, as a government, doing this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I would not agree with the Member's statement on ignoring what the elders have stated. We haven't seen any of the information that Colville may be gathering. We have worked with the people in that riding. The Sahtu Resource Management Board is the board that we have been working with. If there is other information out there, we would certainly like to see it and we would like to see the methodology of how it's collected and compare numbers. We've gone out on several occasions now to count caribou. We are quite confident in our numbers. If there is information contrary to that, we would certainly appreciate having the opportunity to look at it and have that discussion.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are millions spent on this method by ENR and you may be right. However, I am asking for the small community of Colville Lake to take into consideration their methods of counting caribou. So I would like to ask the Minister of ENR, were the communities consulted, especially Colville Lake? Were the hunters and trappers consulted? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.