Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just trying to understand what the Minister trying to tell me...A trapper goes to the airport, opens the gate, goes into the apron of their airline, where their airline lands. Isn't that part of the responsibility, or is that federal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, again, this is outside of this act. I am trying to get information as we go here, but, Mr. Chair, there is the ability to access the airside through a different legislation that is administered by the federal government. Our airport managers are authorized to grant a permit to do so. There are rules around it. However, that information is being circulated to the different airport authorities. We also have had our staff go into the community of Tuktoyaktuk to provide that information.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another question I would like to ask the Minister is in regard to the airport managers. As you know, we have one airport manager in Tuktoyaktuk who oversees Holman, Paulatuk and Sachs. In that regard, what sort of further responsibilities would the airport manager have? In those smaller communities, they are on contract. The airport manager travels to communities on a monthly basis to see how they are doing. How will some of these changes be to the smaller communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, this bill will not change the authority of the airport managers. I don't believe the airport manager is on contract. Our contracts are usually with the maintenance side of the airports. That is the case in Tuktoyaktuk. We just recently put the airport maintenance to public tender. A local company has taken on that responsibility. Our airport manager will

have the same authority. In fact, he would have also the responsibility to act as an enforcement officer in the airports that he looks after.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarification, I know that the airport manager is employed by the department. I think I was leaning towards the contracts that the department has in smaller communities, say CARS. They do have people that work that fit under contract. Having said that, I think that pretty well covered my question in regard to the airport manager. He can oversee these people in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, that is quite outside this bill. However, we don't look after the CARS contract anymore. That responsibility is through NAV Canada. They have gone to a private company to administer this program. So that responsibility is no longer ours.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. I have Mr. Braden next. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am interested in the aspect of this bill that covers the provision of airport lands to businesses and other tenants, especially the case at our larger airports, Mr. Chair, where there is more business and commercial activity. Of late here in Yellowknife, I think a relatively long-standing issue has cycled up again. This relates to the ability of businesses to access our airport lands on a leased basis and then, of course, the comparative cost of that land to other commercial options. Perhaps a question of the core of this is, to what extent could, or should, territorial airports be in the business of making their lands available to businesses without an airline or an aircraft function? In respect of that, one side of the question is, what is the value of a piece of airport leased land compared to the value of a piece of commercial land right across the street, and how does this equate for the business community? The question that I wanted to put in relation to this, Mr. Chair, is, what methods are used to establish lease rates and costs in communities where there is a viable commercial market? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chair, we believe our rates for leases on airport lands are comparable to what the city leases their lands for. We do an assessment on a five-year basis. Every five years, we have a consultant come on stream. We do an assessment and check the market to see if our rates are comparable. So we are quite comfortable that it is comparable. However, having said that, it should be noted that the service levels are not the same. Our lands are leased out. They don't have provisions for water and sewer at this point, so the rates could be considered higher on airport lands than they would be within the city.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you for that information, Madam Chair. I won't get into a discussion of that. I think that is outside of the bill, but I appreciate knowing how this is done.

The bill sets out quite a range of terms and authorities that the department and, of course, the airport manager needs to be able to run the place efficiently and effectively. What I wanted to probe a little bit here was the accountability of the authorities, the airport manager, to answer for and justify the kind of rules or regulations that they may set. Say in a municipality, and I guess in a very rough sense I equate the operation of an airport to running a small community. There's a whole bunch of different things that have to be in place for it to work efficiently and that's fine, I don't dispute that at all. But in any other public venue, if rules are going to be set and penalties and things applied, then there's usually an appeal or some kind of accountability mechanism for the people in authority. What is the accountability here at this airport management level? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Madam Chair, the act is fairly clear on the accountability process. There are a number of ways to enforce a lot of the stuff; whether it's through the enforcement officers or through the Minister's authority. Also, we have to remember that a lot of these lands that fall under the airport jurisdiction also are within the city. We follow very closely with the zoning requirements. We also require our leases to have permits that are issued from the city. So we have a number of ways, checks and balances, that we ensure that the proper rules are followed.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry; that's not quite what I meant in asking the question. It is where the airport authority will set out certain rules and conditions and if I am found to be in violation, what mechanism, then, do I have to seek an appeal or have my side of the story heard? This is maybe where I'm not using the right word, but that's what I meant by accountability. If we're exercising authority here, then where is...Okay. I will continue to use the word "accountability." Can the public have a way of testing, and probing, and challenging where it might be required of these authorities? That's what I meant by accountability. Where is that mechanism? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. McLeod.

Madam Chair, I guess this is what we're trying to resolve here with this new act. We're trying to put an act in place that will cover a number of acts that we fall under that we're not clear. In this new legislation, the rules are very clear; they're spelled out how things should be operating. The duties fall under the airport managers to enforce. If that does not follow through, the appeal process would either go to the deputy minister or myself as a Minister, or whoever the Minister of the day is. The first stop would be through the airport manager, but failing that, of course, is the regular process of going to the deputy minister or the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Braden.