Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (Translation) As I said in my Member's statement, we have people living along the highway. There are cabins along the highway. A lot of our elders are practising their traditional lifestyle, and I'd like to ask the Minister a question. Will his department, the staff in Fort Rae, would they be able to plough the access roads to these people's cabins at least once or twice a month? That is my question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the clearing of access roads to cabins is really clearly outside of the Department of Transportation's mandate. However, we have, in some regions, been able to come to some agreements in areas where there are no other contractors or no construction outfits to come and do that work. I would be pleased to be able to sit down with the Member to talk about the particular roads that he's referencing. There is some flexibility here where if there's a clear demonstration that there is nobody else that can do it, if he can demonstrate that there is a land tenure to this property, we'd consider it. Other than that, we have been refusing all requests up to now in this area because there are contractors out there that have raised concern, that they have demonstrated that they work in the area and they want to do that kind of work. So I'd be able to sit down and talk to the Member to discuss this further; however, as to going out and saying yes we're going to set up a process to start clearing access roads, that's not something we're willing to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to thank him for his answer. We always talk about cooperation and working together. We had a meeting in Rae and we talked about how we can all work together as governments. As he has mentioned, he is saying that it is out of his mandate and he's talking like this is not the mandate of the government. But if you look at it, the government, all the communities are our government. It's very difficult if there's no access road to these cabins, so I'd like to ask the Minister a question. Is he willing to work with us? Whose mandate is it to help these people? Is it the Tlicho Government, or maybe he can sit with the Tlicho Government to have further discussion on this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I already offered to do that. I'd be willing to sit with the Member and the leadership of the Tlicho to discuss this. There are a number of concerns that come to the forefront, and we have relayed this to the Member. The contractors have raised the issue of us going into an area where they could go as private contractors. There is land jurisdiction that is a concern. Anything off of our highway right-of-way is a jurisdiction that could possibly be federal land, or it could be Commissioner's land. We need authorization to go onto that land. We may need land use permits. There are a number of things we'd have to work out. If some of these properties are on Tlicho lands, that may be a separate issue and I'd be glad to sit down and work with the Member to see what we can do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank him for agreeing to sit with us and discuss this. This issue is important to the people who live along the highway because the traditional lifestyle is very important that we are trying to maintain. I thank him again for agreeing to sit with us. We will have discussions with the Tlicho Government and also the federal government. So the sooner the better that we have this meeting. Maybe as soon as this budget session is over, we can arrange a meeting. So the Tlicho Government is also awaiting our decision here regarding that. Maybe we can set a date in the next couple of weeks to have this meeting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. I don't know if I heard a question there; however, I will allow the Minister...I don't know if the Minister heard a question or not. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's pretty hard to answer when there is no question. I certainly will commit to sitting down with the Member in the next couple of weeks, or as soon as he can arrange with the leadership of the Tlicho, to get together to talk about this issue and see if we can find some resolution to it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Finance Minister's budget included so much about our reliance or our relationship with the federal government that I was thinking last night that not only should the Minister of Finance become an incredible hulk, I think all 19 of us have to become incredible hulks and maybe we should even consider parking ourselves

outside of Wellington Street in Ottawa and make it our full-time job to just lobby the federal government.

Anyway, Mr. Speaker, we know of the importance of getting a deal on resource revenue sharing and devolution, but that's the big picture item that is with us all the time. However, there are very real, item-by-item things in our budget where we are relying on the federal government to give us money, not only the $500 million for socio-economic impact fund. I don't think we are concretely solid on that. We still need to get a commitment on that, as well as the money from the Kelowna deal, the Northern Strategy money that the Minister speaks about on page 5 where we are supposed to get a housing unit. I would like to know from the Minister what are our impacts on that. There is $100 million over the next three years for housing that the previous government committed we are not certain of. Then there is a whole whack of money going to community governments that we are not certain on. I would like to ask the Minister what his proposal is. My assumption is that everything is up to debate until they are confirmed. I am assuming that you have to confirm it with the new federal government. I would like to know what his strategy is to ensure we secure these fundings. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on a number of fronts, we are going to be approaching a new government. The Premier, of course, as soon as he is able, will be getting a meeting with Prime Minister-designate Harper. Myself, when we hear who the Finance Minister will be, will be trying to get some time with the new Minister of Finance. The Minister of Housing will do the same. We would employ much of the same strategies we have with previous governments about specific roles and the commitments made out there. We've already highlighted the areas that we feel are most critical on the list that we first need to make contact with. The Members mention a few of them. For myself as Minister of Finance, some of the more critical ones have to do with formula financing arrangements, the borrowing limit and, of course, resource revenue sharing is critical to us.

The issue of housing, specifically, Mr. Speaker, is something that comes out of Bill C-48 and the $1.6 billion federal contribution towards housing across Canada. The commitment out of that money, the amount that Ms. Lee mentioned, was looking initially at $50 million over two years to cost share some housing in the Northwest Territories. We will have to get down there as soon as Ministers are named to their portfolios, to get a commitment of how soon that money will flow. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just concentrating on the smaller items but still vital, obviously, the $100 million over the next three years for housing that the Minister mentioned and also there is $12 million budgeted for communities, including $4.5 million from the federal Gas Tax Agreement. We don't know at this time if it's going to be multi-year funding. Then we have money for the water treatment plants. There are lots of partnerships between the GNWT and community governments that community governments really are relying on. Is it safe or can we be safe that the budget we are passing this session is reliable, or is there a possibility that we will have to revisit this in June, depending on what the federal government does? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the funding amounts that we have included in the budget that's going to be before Members identifies money we have accounted for. So legislation has gone through the federal Parliament, as well as Treasury Board. It's a matter of just getting commitments of how soon will they flow and release some of those funds to us, but for the most part, they are confirmed money. The ones we have highlighted as issues are the large ones, as I have addressed yesterday, in fact. The housing money is something we need a commitment on. The $500 million impact funding is something we need them to commit on. That one flows outside of the budget process we are in. Yes, there are a lot of different facets we are going to have to get up to speed on. I know when new Ministers are named, they have to deal with issues from across the country and we hope to be front and centre on some of those initiatives to try to get some movement very quickly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Short supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the infrastructure money to the communities, it's my understanding that those are multi-year funding in partnerships with the community governments and the GNWT and federal funding, as well as the federal gas tax. The former government, during the campaign, talked about making it multi-year. We are not certain about that. Could I just ask the Minister if the section that he has on page 5 is certain for now and not subject to change with the new government? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issues with community funding that we have identified have been put in trust, the agreements are signed and arrangements are made. Our arrangements where we need to match have been identified. What we have included for community infrastructure and budgets, the federal gas tax agreements, those are agreed to, signed off, and will be flowing. So those are straightforward in those areas. If there are areas that we have to match again, it's identified within the appropriate

Ministers' budgets and we are confident in those areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.