Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure where he's getting his information from. The rules have not changed. Every athlete was required to apply for a passport. The deadline was at the territorial trails. The problem that we're encountering now, a small number of our athletes have not received their passports and in some cases the Government of Canada, the Immigration department, is seeking more information, and we are concerned that information may not get there in time. But everybody has followed the rules; everybody has applied for their passports. The majority of the athletes have their passports, and the mission staff and everybody else that's going. There's a small number that don't have it and we are working on a plan B in the event that they don't receive their passports in time. We have no intention of reimbursing anybody, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I appreciate that we sort of seesawed on this issue, because it sounds like we're still going with plan B, although plan A may not work. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to get clarity. If they do not have their passports, are we still going to support those athletes going forward, because it seems unfair for those parents who ran out and got passports for kids and they're not being compensated, because it sounds as if plan B will still get the kids into the country of the United States. So what are we doing, plan A or plan B? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, it would be premature to say we're working on plan B until plan A doesn't work. So we are still anticipating that the majority of our athletes, and maybe all of them, will have their passports in time. But in the event that one, or two, or whatever the number is, do not receive the passport, because there have been some athletes that have been notified that they have to send in more information, then we'll take in plan B. Plan B we need to start working on now if we're going to have a plan B. So we are talking to the host society; we are talking to the people that would make the decision whether or not they would allow us to have some athletes accepted into the country with a birth certificate and a general identification card. We're doing it now because some of our athletes do not have a general

identification card, so we have to get that in place. So those things, we have to make sure are in place before the athletes start travelling in early March. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my colleague Mr. Villeneuve said yesterday...and I believe in the principle, this is not a kick against the Minister, the department or Sport North, but this is simply based on fair treatment. Did our best athletes come forward because of the concern of not having a passport and fair treatment of parents? Mr. Speaker, the Minister had said plan B: birth certificate and general ID. Will that be the policy, or is that how we're going to get these extra kids in there when we originally told everybody you needed a passport or don't bother going to the trials. I need a clear answer. Passport or no. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know if that decision's going to be ours at the end of the day. Anybody with a passport will get into the country. That's fairly definite. People without passports, we are trying to get a methodology of them being able to get into the country. So we have to do that now. We have to ensure they have their birth certificate and a general identification card, and that's still not a guarantee they're going to get into the country. We have not changed our position. We still want all the athletes, all the staff, all the mission staff, everybody to have a passport. But failing that, we don't want to have to send athletes home after they've gone through all this process. So there is a small number there that we have concern with and we're going to work with on it to see if we can have them enter the country.

But having a passport is not a new thing for Arctic Winter Games. We do it for every Arctic Winter Games where we have to go to a different country. It's not a new requirement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a very good question. I am aware of the work annually that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business does where they survey northern businesses to ask them about some of the impediments of doing business in the North. Typically, they identify things like labour costs, energy costs, regulatory burden, tax burden. But a specific study that we've conducted, I am not exactly sure. I will talk to our regional staff. It is possible that we could go out and solicit some input. Using the chambers would probably be effective, talk to northern business about their business challenge and biggest hurdles. I tend to agree with the Member; the answer isn't direct subsidization which does really nothing, except for some short-term relief. I think it's to look to some longer-term structural answers and I am thinking around energy and some of the discussions we've had about gasification of communities, getting communities on natural gas or other issues, hydro, things like that, Mr. Speaker. I think it's a good point and it's certainly something I could have my regions look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Minister. I think I heard some kind of a commitment there from the Minister that he will instruct his department in house to go and do a bit of a survey with some of the northern businesses to see what we can do. Did I hear a commitment there? Am I correct?

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I will speak to the deputy minister about it and we will go out and talk to our regional staff and have them engage in a discussion with regional businesses. I think we can use the chambers to help us with some of this, to ask them about some of the challenges of doing business and see if there aren't some ways that we can bring costs down. Of course, the Member is right; we want to make sure if there is some way to reduce input cost, that that is passed on, in terms of prices of food, passed onto our consumers, especially in our smaller communities where it's, obviously, very, very expensive to buy groceries. I think energy is an obvious one, one of the first things that comes to mind and we can do some work in that area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I listened to the questions going back and forth on the theme topic today, which is high cost of living, I am not sure if anybody listening today and walking away from this is really getting an idea about whether or not government is willing, able or has figured out anything that could help our people out there. I am not sure if anything is going to be done about what to do about having to pay $20 for a box of detergent in Tuk, which is what I saw there. What would we do about a family in Yellowknife who has to spend every cent of their household income just to live? For the government to say we spend 100 and something million dollars in subsidies, so we are doing our job, and people over there are thinking, great, the government is spending a lot of money. I don't even know the logic of saying the government spending that money has something to do with the cost of living, or that building hydro has something to do with reducing the cost of living.

So as the Minister of Finance, as he is burying himself in the books and thinking about cost of living questions, is there anything that he thought of that could actually help people with the cost of living issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I had addressed during the budget process and laying out the issues that we have to face, subsidies work in the short term not in the long term. We are going to have to do things differently and it's about how we use our energy, the cost of producing that energy. They are big things. It's not going to be immediate. The transportation systems, communication systems, have to be improved to reduce those types of things.

Mr. Speaker, when travelling in the Nunakput region, stopping in the community of Paulatuk and visiting their Northern Store and looking at their produce section and one tomato costing $4.67 sends a message to us. Yes, we have to do something differently. But much of what we can do or try to improve on is going to take a significant amount of time and investment of cash. Short term, subsidies will work, but we try to do things, for example, with our own employees. The northern allowance package deals with different zones within the territory to try to deal with those high cost of living areas. That works for us, but doesn't work for the private sector, I realize that. So there are things we are doing and looking at and some of the things are going to be more far reaching and cost a whole lot in the area of investment. Thank you.

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

A simple economic principle would suggest that the government paying the subsidy is keeping the artificial prices and artificial economy, really. That does not bring down the cost of things. It just helps people in terms of how much they have to pay out of their own pocket. It really doesn't address getting money from resource revenue sharing or anything. I am not hearing any fresh idea from the Minister about what he's prepared to do, something for our residents, with respect to this enormous cost of everything. I would like to know if the Minister could give us anything at all. I can't think of anything either...

---Laughter