Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, none of this was done on a whim and as elected politicians and officials, the Ministers and MLAs, we deal with politics and political decisions all the time. In this case, we made, in my opinion, a careful good decision. The option to renovate is still there, but it behoves me as Minister to get the information to see in fact whether there is the ability to construct new for the same price to extend the life and have a facility that would be there for 20 or 30 years longer than the renovated facility. Dene K'onia still is there and the potential renovation is there. Once the numbers are in I will be sharing those numbers and we'll be able to see how accurate those estimates and recommendations were in terms of new construction within the existing budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister who in his department is responsible for getting that type of information back to Members of this House, because obviously there seems to be a disconnect somewhere between Public Works and Services and the Department of Health and Social Services in what was going to happen with the Dene K'onia facility in Hay River. I would like to ask the Minister who in his department is ultimately responsible for letting Members of this House know that the scope of this project was about to change. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

I am, Mr. Speaker, and on May 26th I wrote to the chair of the Social Programs committee to give her the latest information that we had available. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was five weeks after Public Works and Services' ad appeared in the News of the North asking for the demolition of the facility in Hay River. Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to ask the Minister if that ad didn't appear in the newspaper, when was he going to let Members of this House know? How come we had to find out via newspaper and via parents of children that attend the TTC here in Yellowknife? Why was that the case, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had a number of discussions with the Minister for Public Works and Services, and we've made sure that the lines of communication are operating as they should be and we've rectified whatever missteps there may have been and we are carrying on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much there, Mr. Speaker. I've got some questions for the Minister of Transportation with regard to the ferry situation in the Nahendeh. Recently, our operations have been curtailed, particularly in Fort Simpson we're running a 12-hour day as opposed to, like, an 18-hour day as it was last year. As well, there was a very late start in getting the Wrigley ferry operational. If it had happened to the one at Fort Providence it would have been completely unacceptable to Yellowknife residents. I say it is unacceptable to Nahendeh residents to have this kind of operations being curtailed. Will this Minister tell me when will we get engineers and regular captains set for our ferries in the Nahendeh? Mahsi.

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

Mr. Speaker, this year, at the outset of our ferry operating season, we did experience some problems acquiring the necessary engineers to operate the ferry at the Liard River crossing. We have now identified the individuals that are needed. We are in the process of recertifying some of the people that will be working in an engineering capacity for the summer, and that's being done by Transport Canada. We have an official coming to the North to do that. We also experienced some problems with the Nduli ferry, and the contractor has indicated to us now that he has resolved that issue and we should have no further problems with the personnel with both of those ferries. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just, once again, the situation particularly in Fort Simpson is that this shift in hours has really impacted the way that people do business. Previously you were able to go to Hay River and Fort Liard, in particular day trips and then back to the community of Fort Simpson. Just, again, I know that the ministry is working hard at getting the engineers and I would just like to urge, on behalf of the Nahendeh residents, to proceed in haste in getting these engineers. Just for question purposes I guess, Mr. Speaker, when is the Minister's best estimate in getting

the engineer and return of the regular captain at both ferries? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've had to increase our staff requirements at the Liard River crossing from two crews that operated historically through the contract process to three crews now and we did have some shortcomings when it came to some of the engineers. The engineers that had worked for the previous contractor no longer wanted to come to work for the territorial government with some of the issues around the lack of vacation pay and issues of that nature. We did go out and seek individuals that could be recertified and we have Transport Canada coming to the North, I think it's this week, and we should have everyone scheduled for crew rotations by the next coming days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this first opportunity this session to ask a question to Minister of Health and Social Services and on an issue that he's quite familiar with. It has to do with the efforts of the Yellowknife community to build the Alzheimer's facility in the city, Mr. Speaker. This has been something that has been worked on by the YACCS and other senior leaders of the city for a very long time. A couple of years ago there was a suggestion by YACCS to the government for them to finance the money that was required to build the building as long as there could be a commitment from the government to pay for O and M. The Minister and the Cabinet considered that, but, instead of going that way, the government and the Minister has agreed to look at the overall long-term care strategy for all those who are in need of long-term care and mostly including seniors and also those with Alzheimer's. Mr. Speaker, I could tell you that the community is very happy with the initial $1 million that we got to do some planning on that, but I just wanted to ask the Minister where he is with this project and to just reconfirm his support with moving forward with this project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what was initially proposed by YACCS was both that we would cover the O and M, as well YACCS would take out the loan and we would just cover off the monthly mortgage payments. Mr. Speaker, this issue has been on the table for some time now. There's been funds, as the Member indicated, committed to this and the direction from Cabinet was to put this into the current business planning process that is now underway in the capital planning process and that has been done. Work has been done on the model and the initial cost estimates which we have received. All those figures have been included and, as far as I'm aware -- and I've asked the deputy about this -- this has been included into the capital plan for this 2007-08, as has been instructed by Cabinet. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate his answer in this regard and I could advise him that I'd like to continue to work with Cabinet and the Minister on this project and overall long-term care strategy for all those in need in the Territories, because I think the national trend and all the health indicators suggest that it's better to have our people in need of care outside of the hospital setting and in communities. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm just wondering, for those who are not aware of the business plan and capital process, when would it be that those parties could be advised as to where this project might be at? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.