Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank the honourable Member for that response. I wasn't quite sure, was that this coming business plan will the contact be made, this coming year? Will it be in the workshop forum? I know that it has to interest some people who want to be qualified and expressed interest

and get training. Is that the type of information that will be shared in the communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the key is to identify the resources to in fact be able to hire the required midwives, nurses, hopefully nurse midwives, but midwives that can work in the community. As well, as the Member has indicated, we have to consult with the region and communities and ensure that there's an interest, look at the statistics and what kind of infrastructure there is going to be necessary to in fact have that service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Again, I wasn't too clear if it was going to happen this coming fiscal year. If the Minister could answer that for me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Member is talking about the budget and business plan or budgets we're currently reviewing, it's not in this particular business plan or budget. We'd be looking at the subsequent year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to address my questions to Premier Handley. This is in respect of communication with proponents of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. Mr. Speaker, we have been seeking a fair share of our resource royalties for years in the NWT. There was a golden opportunity to really get somewhere; that is to bargain with the gas producers' need for certainty on tax and royalty regimes, to translate that into certainty for our own need here in the NWT for fiscal fairness from Ottawa. Mr. Speaker, why didn't the Premier and the Finance Minister stand up and fight for the future of northerners, instead of giving into the demands of the gas producers and the pipeline companies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, as a government, have to be able to balance a number of issues at one time. We can't deal with one issue at a time. So there are a number of things in play, and I don't know if the Member can keep up with all the things that are happening here or not.

I can suggest that while we are looking at creating a fair fiscal environment and a good balanced fiscal environment, we're also looking at resource revenue sharing.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that Mr. Braden's implication in his statement earlier on that somehow creating this instability would somehow help us to make a better deal on resources revenue sharing at a time when the federal government is in an election, I just don't quite understand his reasoning there. I want to take this opportunity to assure all businesses, whether it's a big pipeline business, a diamond business, the mom-and-pop grocery store on the corner, that we, as a government, believe in a good, fair, balanced fiscal environment as being number one. If you don't have that, you don't have business, you don't have jobs and you don't have programs. So, Mr. Speaker, I don't follow Mr. Braden's logic. If there is one there, I don't follow what it is.

Mr. Speaker, what we agreed to with Imperial is an agreement that said we are going to be fair. We are a responsible government that we're taking over through devolution responsibilities, and we're going to be fair with you in the same way we're fair with every other little business in the community. We're not going to hold you hostage or use you for a pawn to achieve some other objective we might have. We're responsible; we're fair; we're good government. We're not some banana republic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

I'll be putting in a requisition for a pair of new running shoes to make sure that I can keep up with this government and this Premier on the breakneck speed in which they fail, Mr. Speaker, to consult with us. This is a consensus government.

Consultation is an enormous need and an expectation that we have and that we're going to be able to do our job over here. But this was, among many, the greatest example, the worst example, Mr. Speaker, of how this government has failed to consult with the Members on this side.

There is a major policy position at stake here -- huge -- potentially affecting millions of dollars in future revenues. Why did the Premier and the Cabinet not consult with MLAs until hours before they released that letter?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope Mr. Braden gets those running shoes, because he'll need them to keep up with us.