Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will endeavour to look at whether or not I can move things around in my schedule to accomplish that. I do have some other travel plans, but if it's possible I would be happy to join the Member on that occasion.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a very good meeting with Premier Williams on Saturday. The meeting was to talk about a national energy strategy. Of course, that includes resource revenues and where they will be allocated. Mr. Speaker, Premier Williams chairs a committee of the Council of the Federation. The other members of that committee are myself, Premier Klein from Alberta, and Premier Charest from Quebec. So what we are doing is working on a national strategy that hopefully would be presented on behalf of all the Council of the Federation Premiers to the Prime Minister and federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When can the Northwest Territories, along with two powerful Premiers on this committee, Alberta and Quebec, when would this council make the national energy strategy known to the other Premiers so that they can go forward to the federal government and, like Mr. Williams said, hopefully we can have all 13 areas in Canada, or provinces in Canada, all 13 be like Alberta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to make one correction. There are four powerful Premiers on that committee.

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I take very seriously my responsibility to represent the North. I think it's very important that the North be on this committee. I hope that I can carry as much influence to the committee's decisions and recommendations as do the others.

Mr. Speaker, our intention is to table a draft national strategy at the Council of the Federation meeting in July. Assuming that the other Premiers are onside with what we're recommending, it would then become a document forwarded to the federal government and, of course, then the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My apologies to the powerful Premier, Mr. Handley. I hope he doesn't tell me to take a hike here. I'd like to ask Mr. Premier, in terms of the National Energy Strategy going forward to the Premiers and forwarded on to the Prime Minister, what would be in the National Energy Strategy involved this side here in terms of putting together something that would be supported by all Members within the Territories to bring this forward to a final recommendation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I would certainly be very willing to brief all of the Members of this House as we progress in putting the strategy together. This was our first face-to-face meeting to think through how the strategy would be put together, what would be the elements to it, how it would be structured. I can't make it public at this point because we would have to have the agreement from all of the Premiers before we'd do that. But I'd be happy to brief Members privately and when it's agreed that it should go public, I'll certainly be the first to make it available to everyone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. My question today is to the Minister of Transportation. The community of Nahanni Butte have long-term plans of completing their access road and are looking for assistance from the Department of Transportation in that they're wondering if they can work with them to advance the funds or even co-sign a loan to advance the funds on constructing the road. I think it's $1.2 million, where the government has plans to spend $200,000 a year. The community is looking at getting a guarantee from the government to build the road in one or two years. Is the Minister and is the transportation ministry willing to look at an alternative like that to complete this road? Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we'd be interested in sitting down with the community of Nahanni Butte to talk about the proposal for the public access road to the community. It's something we're in discussions with in the case of other communities, so we'd, of course, be glad to sit down and discuss this with them also. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just with that, I was wondering how much work was going to be done by the department on that access road this year, because this discussion has to take place soon so that they can start looking at the bulk of the construction next year. I know that the Minister previously indicated to

Nahanni Butte that they were not interested in co-signing such an agreement. The Minister said that he's willing to do that. So I would just like to get some type of commitment that it can be a reality to assist Nahanni Butte in getting this road completed soon. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have committed to providing I think it's $250,000 a year for a period of four years to the Nahanni Butte access road. It's something that we are very interested in doing and in a lot of cases it's to create partnerships with the communities or the development corporations in the communities. We have had discussion in several other communities about the possibility of doing so. We, of course, would have to involve the Department of Finance in this whole discussion to ensure that the FAA is followed, but we'd be glad to do so. We'd be glad to sit down and look at what the community's proposing and responding accordingly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly what the community is looking for, at least some type of commitment other than...I think the key here is to bring the answer over to Nahanni Butte, instead of going there and saying we'll take that for further consideration. That's what I'm asking the House here today. Have a serious look at it, Mr. Minister. Come up with a plan to see if you are willing to co-sign a loan on behalf of Nahanni Butte. Like the last co-venture, they did contribute towards the cost of the road and they have indicated to me that they are willing to do that again, but that's an expression of interest and they'll go a long ways in having your ministry co-sign this loan. So once again, can the Minister provide at least some type of indication or answer to the community? Mahsi.